The most important detail of the trade in my mind was that the right-handed reliever would be heading north of the border in exchange for 21-year-old Canadian minor league hurler Sean Ratcliffe.

I understand that most people don’t think this way. And for the majority of my life, I didn’t either. But thanks to Bob Elliott – Hall of Fame writer, Canadian Baseball Network curator, mentor, friend, question-answerer, and big-time advocate for the little guys in life – I suddenly found myself thinking more about the next move of a young player from Ajax, Ontario, who spent his high school-aged days playing for the Ontario Blue Jays and the Canadian Junior National Team than I was pondering how the trade might help the struggling bullpen of my lifelong favourite team, and the squad that I have worked for over the past seven seasons.

When I say that most people don’t think this way, I am being generous. The likelihood of anyone other than Ratcliffe’s friends and family wondering about him first and foremost upon hearing about the move is pretty small. The former Blue Jays farmhand wasn’t even officially informed of the trade himself until after he unofficially heard that I had tweeted it, from fellow Canuck – hailing from Saint John, New Brunswick and currently rehabbing in Dunedin, Fla., at extended spring training – Andrew Case.

So as everyone around me talked about Grilli, guessed at what the acquisition might mean for the Blue Jays, and asked questions about his numbers and previous attempts made by the organization to get the now-39-year-old in a Toronto uniform, I searched for a like-minded individual to talk to about Ratcliffe.

Well, let’s be honest. I went looking for Bob.

I found him, and interrupted a conversation between the Hall of Famer and Steve Simmons, who I now know was probably talking to him about his retirement for this tribute in the Toronto Sun. At the time, I didn’t know Bob’s last official day would be Wednesday. I stress the word “official” here, because he is still going to write for the Sun, once a week or so, he tells me, and spend more time and energy on the Canadian Baseball Network website than ever.

“I’ll retire from the website when they put me in a box,” he said.

Last year, when Bob was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, after being presented the Jack Graney Award five years earlier, and becoming the first Canuck to win the J.G. Taylor Spink Award and take his place in Cooperstown in 2012 – also being inducted in between into the Ottawa-Nepean Canadians Hall of Fame, the Kingston Sports Hall of Fame, and the Okotoks Dawgs/Seaman Stadium Hall of Fame – I asked his wife Claire if she ever thought he would retire.

Claire told me that even when he did, nothing would really change. Stories for the Toronto Sun about the Blue Jays might turn into tales from the sandlots about Canada’s next best player, or the upcoming quests for the national teams, or the World Baseball Classic, but Bob will never stop loving the game, or promoting the Canadian players within it.

Moments after my conversation with Bob about Ratcliffe – which turned into a conversation about last year’s 28th-overall draft pick and native of Calgary, Alta., Mike Soroka, the previously lone Canadian in the Braves system that Ratcliffe will be joining, which then turned into a conversation about last year’s 12th-overall selection by the Miami Marlins and the highest Canadian position player ever taken, Mississauga, Ont., native Josh Naylor, which then of course continued into a conversation about his Greensboro Grasshoppers teammate and Toronto native Maxx Tissenbaum – I learned of Bob’s impending retirement.

I sent him a message asking if what I’d heard was true.

He confirmed, gave me some details, and at the end of his message he said, “Thanks for Ratcliffe.”

He thanked me. And for what? Interrupting his conversation to take a moment to make myself feel better by finding the only other person at Rogers Centre who would spend more time considering the Canadian minor-league impact of the trade than the more obvious implications for the team right in front of us?

But if my writing was a house, it’s one that Bob built. I’ve told the story before, but after I finished my graduate studies in Sports Journalism at Centennial College, I interned at Baseball America, completing that internship with a trip to Baseball Canada‘s National Teams Awards Banquet and Fundraiser, penning a piece on the state of the game in our nation. Bob found it, called editor John Manuel and asked, “Who is this guy writing about Canadian baseball?”

That guy was me, and Bob asked if I’d be interested in writing for Canadian Baseball Network. I didn’t know much about the landscape of the sport in our country beyond the Blue Jays, so he opened my eyes to a whole new world that has now become my own.

He gave me something to write about, and a platform to do it on. It’s been six years and despite numerous contract opportunities with Baseball America, Prep Baseball Report, The Hardball Times, the Australian Baseball League, Major League Baseball and more, I still don’t have a full-time job, so I cannot stress enough how huge it is to have a consistent platform available for me to utilize.

Bob’s encouragement has meant the most. Everyone in my life can tell you that I have more questions than anyone else they know, and he’s answered every single one I’ve sent his way. He’s made my work feel important, he’s tried to reassure me when I need it, and he pulls me back in every time I’ve felt like quitting writing – including lately, and somehow here I am, writing about Bob. He’s helped me find importance in the things I do, the places I go, and the experiences I get from the game, good and bad.

There are not enough words to describe the impact Bob has had on my professional and personal life, although I won’t stop trying to find the best ones to fit. I’ve had the privilege of being in attendance at Bob’s inductions to both Cooperstown and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and I’ll try to be at the next several inductions scheduled across the country for years to come as well.

I don’t need to miss him, because he will still be covering the game I love every day, answering my emails, and telling me about what’s next for Canadian Baseball Network and more. But I do need to thank him, because I don’t do that enough, and without him I don’t know what I would be so passionate about.

Also, I love sarcasm. In case you didn’t catch it, I was using it in that first sentence.

On our first night in Miyazaki, everyone was awoken by an earthquake that managed to hit 5.8 on the Richter Scale. Most of the people who were sharing their rooms arose thinking that someone they were cohabiting with was shaking their bed to try and get them up. I might have thought that, because that’s what it felt like, but since I was by myself I knew no one was around to shake me awake. I tried to just lay still as the room shook around me but it continued for what felt like a very long time. It probably wasn’t but I really have no idea. Talking to people later, they felt as though it went on for a while too.

The forest that our cottage seems to be in, which I cut through to get to the beach and a running path.

I did get back to sleep after that but not for long. I got up and decided to try going for a run even though I was probably even sorer than I was yesterday, still from that one 25-minute workout that I did. I’m weak, I can admit it now. But I did set out for a run. It was possibly the slowest one I had ever taken. I only accomplished half the mileage I set out to, finishing just a little over than 10 kilometres.

First picture from the run, the beach in the morning.

But the route was beautiful. The Phoenix Seagaia Resort is right next to a beautiful beach with a picturesque ocean view. I stopped several times to take photos, and not just because it was so gorgeous but probably even more because I needed the breaks along the way. Again, I was really sore. I found some awesome spots along the run, going up and down the beach and around to where a lot of men apparently do a lot of early morning fishing and where there are a ton of really nice boats docked.

Next picture stop on the morning run, palm tree-view of the beach.

When I made it back to my room, my first thought was to send some of the beautiful pictures I had just taken out via social media. I quickly discovered that the Internet situation was no better than it had been when we arrived, meaning I could do no such thing and that my panic continued. I had taken a brief break from the stress while I was out running but that would be all.

The view of the Phoenix Seagaia Resort from the beach.

I took my computer to breakfast to see if it would work better there because I’d received some emails the day before during our tour of the facilities, but I couldn’t make it work on Friday. I was unsuccessful at sending out tweets or pictures or Facebook posts, which was pretty disappointing.

During breakfast, Andre brought up the idea of putting on an Amazing Race for the team on Saturday. He wanted the staff to come up with some obstacles and a course that we could put 10 teams of two people through together between breakfast in the morning and leaving for practice at ten-thirty in the morning. Since I had just come back from running on a fantastic route, I threw out the idea of having the turnaround point be at a huge set of stairs that I had found.

The stairs that I found at one of the ends of my run.

My idea was to have a list of the numbers one through 10 at the bottom of the stairs in Japanese for the teams to memorize, reciting them individually at the top. If the first member of the team couldn’t do it, they would have to go back to the bottom of the stairs and send up their partner for an attempt, and so on and so forth. The only problem with my plan was that I wasn’t sure exactly how far away from the cottage the stairs were because I had run all around and found them near the end of my run. I figured they were about two kilometres away but I had to go back and check just in case. I didn’t want to injure any of the athletes on the trip who were about to compete for a world championship.

So after a brief post-breakfast meeting to continue talking with the rest of the staff about Amazing Race plans I set out to run back to the stairs, even though I was obviously still sore and now a little bit tired. I made sure the GPS on my phone was working so that I could get an accurate reading and I went back. It was a little over two kilometres, and then my run back was slightly longer because I decided to try another way and hit a dead end, but we figured that some of the teams might do the same thing or just go the wrong way in general, so their results might be similar.

Yup.

While I was out running and thinking – mostly about how sore my legs were and how far I would make it – I realized that the trip is more than halfway through, almost two-thirds of the way done even. It was a sad realization. It has already been great and a lot of fun and a fantastic experience but I’m just not sure I’ve made the most of it yet. Hopefully there is still time.

Andre had worked with Hiroko on Thursday night to find an exhibition game on Friday to replace the one the team had missed out on the day before. The game was set for the afternoon and everyone would be leaving just after lunch for it. My immediate concern was finding an Internet connection for the game. I would need to tweet the game updates and then write and send a game story and hopefully upload some pictures to the Facebook page. I talked to Yukiko, our latest translator, and tried to enlist her help in order to find a wireless connection to the Internet that I could use at least until the Women’s Baseball World Cup games started. I was told there would definitely be Internet at the stadiums for those matchups.

Yukiko said that there was probably a place at the mall we could go to get a portable connection so she took me there. She drove me in her personal car, which was incredibly kind of her, and we went to three different stores at the mall and got the same answer for all of them. No one did temporary connections and everything was based on two-year contracts. I obviously was not interested in a two-year contract so we were back at zero.

From the mall we barely made it back to the resort in time for lunch and while I was still panicking, Yukiko was calling around to try and find a solution. I asked her to phone Hiroko to see if I could borrow hers again even if just for the afternoon. My momentary concern was the upcoming game and I figured if I could get through it I could figure the rest out later. Yukiko spoke to Hiroko and came back from their Japanese conversation with a smile on her face so I was hopeful. Hiroko wasn’t around to give me her wifi connection but from what I could understand, there was another guy somewhere nearby who was going to bring one over to our hotel so I could use it.

Yukiko got it from him and we set off with the team for the diamond where the women would play their last exhibition game before everything became completely real. I needed an outlet to plug it in so when we got to the field that was the first thing I went looking for. It took a while but I finally got one. Unfortunately, nothing Yukiko had given me worked. I don’t know if it just wasn’t compatible with what I had going on or if we just couldn’t get through the instructions between us, but nothing was working. I became super frustrated.

The location of the last exhibition game for the women’s team.

Everyone kept telling me it was okay and there was nothing I could do and they understood, but it wasn’t the people I was with who I was really concerned about. I was worried because not only would parents and friends of the players not know what their loved ones were doing on the field, but I am also trying to make an impression. This is my first opportunity at doing something like this and working with a team and holding this particular role, so I don’t want to screw it up.

Eventually I had to give up. I resigned to just taking photos so that I could upload them later and hope that everyone could catch up to the game’s events that way.

Claire Eccles started the game and showed that she was over the nerves she had in her first outing with the team.

The game was a 14-3 blowout shortened by rain against a Miyazaki high school program called Nichinan Gakuen (to the best of my knowledge). It was at a cool field with a big dome in the background so I tried to work that into as many of the pictures as I could. Plus, almost the entire team made it into the game at one point or another so I wanted to take as many photos of them as possible. A couple of the World Cup rookies got into the game with the jitters of their first appearances out of the way and they were able to turn the page and find success. It was a great way to finish out the exhibition series and the whole story on the game can be found right here. Of course, they took a dual-team photo at the end of it all too.

The Nichinan Gakuen high school team with the Canadian Women’s National Team, and the dome of course.

When we got back to the hotel I had enough of an Internet connection to upload the photos I had taken. I even sent out three tweets, so I was incredibly excited. I thought finally I might actually be able to do some work. Cindy Saavedra also came by to offer me her computer because the Internet had been working better for her so we thought it might be a better solution. I told her I would grab it after dinner if I still needed it but for the time being, I was still doing alright.

One of the best pictures of the game, of Nicole Luchanski coming into the dugout after scoring.

At dinner I talked to Kate and Ashley a little bit about the Baseball Canada banquet and fundraiser which happens every year in January. I wanted to inquire as to why I’ve never seen any members of the women’s national team at the banquet and they said it was just because they would have to pay for their tickets and it is expensive. It was simple and made sense, but it still sucks a little bit. They pointed out that their program doesn’t really bring a lot back to Baseball Canada in terms of money or sponsorships or otherwise, so it’s not worth as much to the organization, which also makes sense and still sucks.

One more dome picture from the game, the teams shaking hands at the end of it.

We also talked a little bit about potential sponsorships and the possibility that maybe Roberto Alomar could or would jump on board. He already committed to flying to Vancouver for just a day to be with the team at training camp and then also brought an article of clothing for each and every person, so why not take it one step further? Ashley mentioned talking to him more during the upcoming Tournament 12 at Rogers Centre to see what he says. Sidebar, Tournament 12 is named for the retired number of the Hall of Fame second baseman and is for the top draft-eligible baseball players from around Canada to showcase their skills in front of scouts and recruiters and play some games on a big-league stage. It’s great.

After dinner everyone attended a team meeting and Andre mentioned the group activity that would take place in the morning. He didn’t say what it was but that everyone should be ready. I finished the game story after that and was actually able to send it out with what little connection I had. It was an enjoyable moment.

When that was finished, I joined Ashley, Kate and Jen to play some euchre. I love the game and used to play it with my friends in high school all the time and we had a great time playing it too, even though some of us were obviously a little rusty.

Before I retired for the evening I got some updates on what would be happening for the Amazing Race – my main role would be to get around as much as I could and take pictures of everything, not staying at the stairs – and then Andre showed me an awesome video he had put together for the team at the last World Cup in Edmonton with messages from their family and friends and shots of them playing and all kinds of great footage. It was awesome.

Then it was time for bed.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/excitement-is-building/feed/031.907674 131.42024131.907674131.420241wnt (31)alexisbrudnickiThe forest that our cottage seems to be in, which I cut through to get to the beach and a running path. First picture from the run, the beach in the morning. Next picture stop on the morning run, palm tree-view of the beach. The view of the Phoenix Seagaia Resort from the beach. The stairs that I found at one of the ends of my run. Yup. The location of the last exhibition game for the women's team.Claire Eccles started the game and showed that she was over the nerves she had in her first outing with the team.The Nichinan Gakuen high school team with the Canadian Women's National Team.One of the best pictures of the game, of Nicole Luchanski coming into the dugout after scoring.One more dome picture from the game, the teams shaking hands at the end of it. The final destinationhttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/the-final-destination/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/the-final-destination/#respondTue, 09 Sep 2014 12:51:18 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=560Continue reading →]]>It’s no secret that I am not a fan of waking up early. If I haven’t been clear about that thus far, let this be the moment.

For the team’s flight to Miyazaki, we had to leave at four-thirty in the morning. I thought it would be a good idea not to stink up the plane or irritate the person who ended up sitting next to me, so I got up 45 minutes earlier I order to shower and finish my last-minute packing. It seems as though no matter how much I do ahead of time, there is always some packing to do just before departing.

Leaving Tokyo for Miyazaki, the final stop of the trip before returning home.

As I headed to the lobby of the Kazo Center Hotel on the way to the bus, every piece of luggage I brought with me was completely at its capacity. And most of it was probably overweight. I left some extra food in the room and in the fridge when I left because I didn’t even have space for that in my bags. My concern for the weight of my bags dissipated as my concern for sleep grew, so eventually I just got over it and figured that whatever would be, would be.

Everyone loaded up the bus and it seemed as though we were all set to go, but we ended up being one short. We were missing our translator Rena. It was her last day with us and all she needed to do was get us to the airport and see us off but no one knew where she was. Women’s national team manager Andre Lachance went to find the last man standing and came back to report that she was still sleeping when he knocked at her door. She didn’t take long to join us but we were a little bit behind schedule without much wiggle room before our flight to Miyazaki.

Not a bad view as we got into Miyazaki, just before landing at the airport.

On the bus I had my last chance to use the wifi I had been so generously offered by Hiroko, the Japanese team’s business manager, because I had to give it back to Rena before we took off. I finished some final emails and before we arrived at the airport and then gave back the piece of equipment I owed to Rena, along with some maple cookies and maple syrup that I had picked up in Vancouver on the way to Japan. The Canadian staples were really meant for Scott Mathieson and I had planned to bring them when we went to the Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants game, but I had forgotten. I didn’t want them to go to waste, I didn’t want to travel with them – clearly I already had enough stuff to tote around – and I thought they would be a much better present for someone living in Japan than someone else in my own party. Rena seemed to be happy with the gifts so that worked out nicely, because I am really not sure she was a fan of us after spending so much time dealing with all of problems and the language barrier.

Upon landing in Miyazaki, still looks like a beautiful place. Oceans and mountains are a good combination.

I tried to sleep a little bit on the rest of the ride to the airport. I’m not really sure if we went to Narita or Haneda but they’re both in Tokyo and it all seems relative, really. When we got off the bus we were really rushed in getting our luggage, going through lines and trying to get through security and to the gate. Because I only had one suitcase and we were allotted two each I also had to take a heavy bag full of baseball equipment. I was obviously concerned about the weight of my own to begin with but they took both pieces of luggage without questioning anything, even though they both clearly weighed in beyond the limits set out on the signs right in front of me. I would consider that winning.

We got through security and to the gate and I needed to use the bathroom. Once again, I was confused by whole toilet ordeal. They all seem to have instructions and a whole lot of buttons and there really doesn’t seem to be a real reason for it all. I might just think that because I don’t actually press any of the buttons or make use of whatever options are offered, but I remain convinced they are useless.

Next to the bathroom I found a great little shop with what I would now consider to be awesome food. My standards might be lower than they were when I first arrived in Japan but it was amazing to see cheesy crackers, chocolate crackers and M&Ms, so I bought and almost immediately ate all of the above.

Miyazaki. Made it.

There was wifi in the airport but I had a whole lot of trouble logging on at first because all of the options were coming up on my phone in Japanese. Obviously I don’t understand anything in Japanese but I did surprisingly get through several of the options just by pressing random buttons. I couldn’t make it all the way to the Internet however, so I had to ask Niki Boyd how she managed to get through. She politely informed me that there had been an English option at the beginning of all of my button-pushing. Oops. So I went back and finally logged on. That was a big moment for me.

Somehow up to this point I forgot to mention how sore I still am from the workout I did with a few of the members of the national team. It’s actually unreal how out of shape I feel. I mean, I just ran a marathon in February. What happened? Seriously, need to get back to business as soon as possible.

The team’s welcome to the airport in Miyazaki, Japan for the Women’s Baseball World Cup.

The team’s arrival in Miyazaki was also unreal. It was an unbelievable red-carpet entrance to a slew of reporters and cameras and people presented team captain Ashley Stephenson and Andre with flowers. And we were all in our sweatpants. It was awesome. We got to our bus and it was specially designated for Team Canada, which I thought was a cool detail.

Shots from the bus as we drove through a little bit of Miyazaki before getting to the hotel.

As we drove the Phoenix Seagaia Resort – it even sounds awesome – everything out the window of the bus ride looked beautiful. I tried to take some pictures on my phone and they weren’t all great but I got a few shots. It seemed like a tropical paradise, with mountains and palm trees, plus it was really hot. And humid. It wasn’t bad but from what Ashley and Kate Psota had talked about from their previous experiences in Japan, I expected worse.

The bus was especially for Team Canada and stayed with the squad for the duration of the trip in Miyazaki.

When we arrived to the hotel we got an immediate tour while the people who worked there took all of our bags to the cottage – their word, not necessarily the one I would use – designated for the Canadians. We saw the gym and the pool (that cost money to use) and the room options for where we would get our meals. Then they led us back to the rooms and we were all given our keys to split up.

The entrance to the team’s two-floor cottage at the Phoenix Seagaia Resort.

I kept waiting for my name to be called among the others but I was left for last and as it turned out, I was in a room on my own. That probably sounds like a good thing but I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t take me long to get lonely or bored. Andre had his own room too and wanted to switch me to be on the second of the two floors in the cottage, so I happily switched for the room to which I did not have to lug my bags up a set of stairs to get to. It was great.

My room was what I would call an open concept. It had three small beds off to the right with the living room in the middle, and the kitchen and television off to the left. The shower room was at the front near the door and the toilet room was on its own. At first I just thought my bathroom didn’t have a toilet – which would in no way surprise me here – but then I figured it out.

The three tiny beds that I had to myself in my room. I used one for sleeping and two for making a mess.

I got in and made a mess of the place right away, rooting through my things and leaving everything all around the place before heading to dinner with everyone. Meals were prepared buffet-style with some interesting options. There were some traditional (I think) Japanese options with some fish and octopus and other things of that nature, with a variety of rice options, and then some spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and a lot of bread. I opted for the bread products and the pasta. I stayed away from the mystery meat, as per usual, and loaded up on carbs.

At the mall on the floor. I thought it was cool.

After dinner we headed to the mall that was just a five-minute drive away from the resort. There was a huge grocery store there so we could check out some of our own food options and then it had some normal stores too, even a Sports Authority. I walked around with Kate, Ashley and Jen and we went to a bookstore before hitting up the sports store. We also found a Baskin Robbins – basically the jackpot – and got some ice cream before going to get some food. I bought more bread items, not surprisingly for those who know me, plus some cashews.

The living room in the middle of my bedroom and next to the kitchen.

When we got back to the hotel I tried to get on the Internet and had problems again. I kind of panicked a little bit, worrying that there would be no wifi for the duration of our stay in Miyazaki but I really didn’t know what to do about it. So I got absolutely no work or writing done and hit the sack for the day. Travelling isn’t my strong suit.

This is the final stop. It’s real now.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/the-final-destination/feed/031.907674 131.42024131.907674131.420241wpid-img_20140828_113838.jpgalexisbrudnickiLeaving Tokyo for Miyazaki, the final stop of the trip before returning home. Not a bad view as we got into Miyazaki, just before landing at the airport. Upon landing in Miyazaki, still looks like a beautiful place. Oceans and mountains are a good combination. Miyazaki. Made it.wpid-20140828_115553.jpgShots from the bus as we drove through a little bit of Miyazaki before getting to the hotel.The bus was especially for Team Canada and stayed with the squad for the duration of the trip in Miyazaki. The entrance to the team's two-floor cottage at the Phoenix Seagaia Resort. The three tiny beds that I had to myself in my room. I used one for sleeping and two for making a mess.At the mall on the floor. I thought it was cool. The living room in the middle of my bedroom and next to the kitchen. Japanese Russian Roulettehttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/japanese-russian-roulette/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/japanese-russian-roulette/#respondSun, 07 Sep 2014 00:41:48 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=546Continue reading →]]>Waking up at a relatively normal time on Thursday makes me think that perhaps I am really catching up to this jet lag thing. It makes sense that I would do that just in time for a scheduled wakeup on Friday before four in the morning. Maybe I’ve really got this all figured out (obviously not at all). But I don’t need to get to the early wakeup yet. I’ll save that for tomorrow.

I headed for breakfast and was the first one there this time, so I actually must have been up earlier than I thought. Usually the people who get there first opt to sit on the floor because it seems more authentically Japanese and they are embracing the culture, but really it kind of hurts my back and my knees, and getting up and down for water is just a hassle, especially when you have to go past another person in order to do so. Maybe I am just over the whole authenticity thing. So instead, I opted to sit at a table. There are tables in the restaurant, and they’ve been there the entire time we’ve stayed at Kazo Center Hotel but for whatever reason, no one wants to use them until the floor seats are all taken. I switched it up.

I just like this picture of the team from practice at Kazo Center Municipal Sports Center. I’ve used it before.

At breakfast Rena, the team’s Kazo translator, informed Andre that there would be no exhibition game that day. It had rained too much and the grounds were wet and unplayable, but she said the team would be able find a place to practice indoors instead. That seemed to suit the manager but he inquired as to whether the barbeque would still happen, because the team the Canadian Women’s National Team was supposed to match up against was also planning on hosting a post-game event for the squad from north of the border. That, as far as Rena knew, was still on.

When breakfast was over and I had eaten my usual piece of toast and bun and maybe a small bit of the eggs on the plate they served every single day, I went with Sean to get some lunch. He said he knew a good sushi stand that has everything ready in the morning for people to pick up food on their way to work and take it with them for their lunch so I thought I would see if they had anything edible for me, just in case lunch was not so great again. I am not sure I can live off of just white bread and white rice for much longer. Plus a little part of me wanted something more for breakfast and was thinking about just diving into whatever I found.

We learned just before we left for the sushi stand that the lunch option was going to be McDonald’s, so we were making a wise choice. Everyone ended up vetoing that anyway so it was going to be a free for all for the second meal of the day, but still. We got to the sushi place, which was really close to our hotel, and I found some giant rolls with what appeared to be cooked tuna in them. And that is, in fact, what it was. So I got some of that and Sean ordered the same thing, plus some rice balls for Andre and some dessert thing. Sean offered to hold onto everything until lunchtime instead of each of us carting around our individual portions throughout the morning. I felt as though this was the only way I wasn’t going to eat everything immediately, so I graciously agreed to this plan.

Everyone took off for the diamond not much longer. We all headed back to the place we had been at for the first two days in Kazo City so it was familiar territory for me. When we got there, Rena (I think) took Andre for a tour of the gymnasium where the practice was supposed to be held. It wasn’t quite up to snuff so we all sat around in the parking lot for a while so that other people could figure out the team’s options. While the players played some solid team-building games, I did short tossing with Kate Psota, the squad’s first baseman. She had an early thumb injury and was just starting to test it out, so as a soft thrower, I was a good candidate for a partner.

Eventually they decided just to use the field at the Kazo City Municipal Sports Center, because it really wasn’t all that wet and it was better than the gym. But the team also used the gym for some indoor drills, and had to switch into shoes the facility made available when they were in there. Interesting concept.

Oh you know, why not another picture of the Tokyo Dome?

I headed into the office at the field and got some work done and did some picture uploading. I also got a chance to talk to Rena about the Yomiuri Giants game at the Tokyo Dome. I think the original plan was for her to come with us to the game but Hiroko was kind enough to give her a night away from us – I think she needed it – and sent her to a spa instead. Rena seemed interested in the game though and had never been to one before so I showed her the pictures I had taken as I uploaded them to the Baseball Canada Facebook page. I also asked her how much our tickets would have been worth, because they were decent seats, and the price on them was about forty dollars. It was very similar to the cost for the value at Rogers Centre at home.

When practice ended I went out to the diamond to find Jen Gilroy. Earlier in the trip she had talked to me a little bit about her volunteer work back at home in Toronto with Ve’ahavta, working with the homeless and even experiencing two days of legitimately living on the street. She even had her shoes stolen while she was sleeping, and they were tied to her backpack that she was using as a pillow. She had mentioned that she wanted to give tickets for next year’s Pan American Games to some of the people she volunteers with to share her experience with them. I found it all very interesting.

Since there was no game scheduled for Thursday anymore, that meant I could write a feature story for the Baseball Canada website instead of a game story. So I wanted to use the opportunity to write it on Jen and her plans for the Pan Am Games – the baseball portion of the Games being held in Ajax – and I knew she would be willing to do so.

Jen Gilroy, the subject of one of my feature stories for Baseball Canada.

As everyone was packing up to leave the field and walk back to the hotel, Jen was heading out to first base to take some extra ground balls from Sean, just in case she might be needed at the position sometime during the tournament. A regular catcher, that was the first time I had seen Jen in the infield. Sean offered me my lunch, which I happily took and ate while I was waiting for them to finish. It was great and I had already pretty much decided that when I got back to the hotel I would go back for more.

When they finished, Jen was more than willing to do the interview so we got her done right away. I originally thought it would make sense to do it as we walked back to the hotel but she wanted to stay and work out – a fact I misunderstood at first – so she wanted to do it at the field. We did and then I honestly wasn’t sure which way to go back to the hotel (we had been given a ride on every other occasion) so I said I would wait for her.

My misunderstanding led to me working out with Jen, Autumn Mills and Ella Matteucci. All I really wanted to do was walk back with some familiar faces but when they started talking about their workout, Autumn jokingly (pretty sure) asked if I wanted to join in. I didn’t want to look like a wimp so I said yes and opted in. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

We did a short 25-minute workout that I think was called Tabata, or something like that. We had to do sets of squats, rows, stairs, sit-ups and burpees. None of these activities are appealing, and they are especially hard when you’re doing them eight times in a row for 20 seconds each time with a 10-second break in between. It may not sound all that hard but let me tell you, it was hard.

I pushed myself throughout the entire workout because, duh, I didn’t want to look bad. I somehow managed to get through it but have no idea what they were thinking of me. I was too happy that it was over to worry about that by the end of it though. That workout is going to leave a mark though. It’s remarkable how out of shape I’ve gotten. I really need to step it up before the next marathon.

We all walked back together and I stopped to point out the sushi place where I had gotten my early version of lunch. They were impressed by the cooked tuna rolls and decided to head back for their own meals. I got more and took it to my room to try and write the story on Jen. The rolls were so big I couldn’t eat them all, but we did have tiny little fridges under our desks so I threw them in there. Depending on dinner, I figured I might need them later.

I got the story done on Jen and Ve’ahavta and the Pan Am Games, and it can be found here for your reading pleasure. Then I got into a little more writing before being informed that our schedule was changing and we were going to be leaving earlier than planned. That took away my option for a shower, but then with another knock at the door I was informed that we were back to the original plan so I didn’t have to smell it up for the barbeque. Fortunately for everyone else.

Before we gathered to leave, Andre called a staff meeting. At first, I felt important to be a part of it and then I just got worried that I was going to be in trouble for some reason. I don’t know why, but I guess being called into meetings has always made me nervous. But there was no reason to be in this case. Andre talked about who would deal with what going forward and my role is pretty well-defined so that was relatively simplistic.

Everyone set off for the barbeque shortly thereafter. The bus ride was an hour so I brought my tablet and tried to get some work done along the way. I did get through a little bit but not much. It’s tough on the bus.

The variety of jerseys made me think that the players were from two different teams. Jen Gilroy in the middle.

When we arrived, it looked like there were two teams there to eat with us. Some had orange jerseys on and some had blue jerseys. They might have just been workout shirts or something but for the purpose of my description, we’re going to call them jerseys.

Welcome to the barbeque. For a while, I’m pretty sure no one knew what was really happening.

They were all split up among several different tables and we were told that we all needed to split up and join them. I went to a table with a lot of empty chairs because I figured that meant a lot of people I was familiar with would be joining me.

Other tables of people at the barbeque.

I was wrong. Ashley and Jen joined me but that was pretty much it. The rest of our table was Japanese, so we started things off by addressing the language barrier. And by that I mean we just talked amongst ourselves trying to sort through what few words in Japanese we knew. Our immediate goal was to figure out what the food was that we would be cooking. Much like the Chinese restaurant that we went to, we had trays of raw food, with a little grill in the middle of the table to cook our own food on.

This was my table, but I was taking the picture.

We thought we were getting somewhere with our new friends when we discovered that one of the meat sources was chicken, but then there was some discrepancy as to whether or not the remaining two protein items were lamb, beef, pork, or any combination of the above. And when we realized that we weren’t sure what was going on with that, we also discovered that we may or may not have been wrong about deducing the first meat as chicken. It was a complicated process.

Everyone was told at the beginning that we had to eat everything that we took because it was rude not to and we didn’t want to upset anyone. That worried me more than anything because if I don’t like a food item, I am not really the kind of eater who can just choke it down and take one for the team. And it didn’t look like I was going to be a fan of much of the items we were being dealt.

Honestly we really only took this picture to try and get a shot of the girl wearing the ‘Dirt’ name tag. Nailed it.

But eventually I was saved. They brought over white rice and I ate two bowls of that, plus Jen demolished the food we had to finish at our table. When they brought out a second tray to our section of the barbeque, I had just looked at Jen and Ashley and said, “I can’t do it.” Ashley laughed and Jen stepped up to help out. I might have also offered her anything she wanted in the world if I didn’t have to eat any more of what they were dishing out. So now I owe Jen a t-shirt. That was what she decided on.

This is what we were cooking our food on. This picture actually happened as a poor attempt to take a shot of the woman wearing the ‘Dirt’ name tag.

After the eating was finished, we all started playing games at our tables. The one we began with was the same as one of the ones that I considered to be team-building from earlier in the day but it’s really hard to explain so I am just going to tell you that it involved a lot of clapping and everyone was involved and we worked it out through the Japanese-English problems we had been having.

The Japanese teams decided that after learning a Canadian game or two, they wanted the women’s team to play one of theirs. We later found out this fun little event was called Japanese Russian Roulette. Yep, that’s right.

A game that I would consider to be normal, brought to you by the Canadian team.

How it works – or appears to – is that they bring out deep fried balls of which no one knows the contents inside. Some have rice, some have chocolate, some have some other relatively normal stuff, and some are filled with wasabi. Yes, that is also right.

Several people jumped into the middle of the circle and chose their own deep-fried ball from the selection and then once everyone had one – there was no chance I was doing this, in case you were wondering – they all put them into their mouths at the same time and then everyone around basically just watches and laughs as one or more of the participants suffers through a mouth full of wasabi. It was pretty funny and completely pointless and none of us could really figure out how they considered it a game, but there we were.

Japanese Russian Roulette, just before half of the people spit out what was in their mouths immediately upon ingesting.

After the games, the other teams presented the Canadian players and staff with hats and they took a couple of pictures all together. They also surprised one of their own teammates whose birthday happened to be on Thursday, by launching several plates full of whipped cream into her face.

Before we left I had to go to the bathroom and I have to tell you, it is weird to have a warm toilet seat. I know they’re designed that way but I don’t like it because it just makes me think someone was on that same toilet right before me for a lengthy period of time. I can’t deal with the toilet differences in Japan. I just won’t get used to it.

As we walked out of the building we had to go through a tunnel of high fives. It was kind of awesome but a little different at the same time. They were just really happy to hang out with us I guess. Or maybe happy to see us leave. But it was a great night. Despite being picky with my food and nervous about eating anything and everything, it could not have been a better way to end the trip to Kazo before moving on to Miyazaki.

Everyone together at the end of the night.

I was really tired on the bus ride back to the hotel and I tried to sleep but it didn’t happen. Plus an interviewer from Newfoundland was scheduled to call my phone for a radio spot with Heather Healey so I needed to be up for that. She did a great job with it even though it was a little bit of a tough interview.

One more from the barbeque, where I actually made it into a picture of our table.

When we got back I had to pack up my suitcase and get set to leave. Regrettably, I had to set my alarm for quarter to four in the morning, not a time I like to be familiar with. I was worried about getting everything into my bags and then worried that my luggage would be overweight – of course it would – so that was a little stressful, but I held out hope for the morning and tried to get what little sleep I could.

Next stop, Miyazaki.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/japanese-russian-roulette/feed/036.131438 139.60171936.131438139.601719wnt (4)alexisbrudnickiI just like this picture of the team from practice at Kazo Center Municipal Sports Center.Oh you know, why not another picture of the Tokyo Dome?Jen Gilroy, the subject of one of my feature stories for Baseball Canada. The variety of jerseys made me think that the players were from two different teams. Jen Gilroy in the middle. Welcome to the barbeque. For a while, I'm pretty sure no one knew what was really happening. Other tables of people at the barbeque.wnt (6)Honestly we really only took this picture to try and get a shot of the girl wearing the 'Dirt' name tag. This is what we were cooking our food on. This picture actually happened as a poor attempt to take a shot of the woman wearing the 'Dirt' name tag. A game that I would consider to be normal, brought to you by the Canadian team.Japanese Russian Roulette, just before half of the people spit out what was in their mouths immediately upon ingesting. Everyone together at the end of the night. One more from the barbeque, where I actually made it into a picture of our table. Wait, the Tokyo Dome isn’t one of the Wonders of the World?https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/wait-the-tokyo-dome-isnt-one-of-the-wonders-of-the-world/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/wait-the-tokyo-dome-isnt-one-of-the-wonders-of-the-world/#respondThu, 04 Sep 2014 11:55:53 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=493Continue reading →]]>After starting to get into the groove of things across the world for the first time on Monday, I actually slept a decent amount of time before waking up on Tuesday. I still woke up a few times throughout the night but I made it. I might just be figuring out this whole jet lag thing, although the real trick is going to be coming back. I am already pretty nervous for that.

I’m sure I will start to really catch on to the whole waking-up-at-a-normal-time thing just in time for our extra-early scheduled flight from Tokyo to Miyazaki on Thursday. As I’m ready for some sleeping in, my alarm will go off with a time that still has a three in the front of it. Can’t wait.

Oh you know, just a picture of the Tokyo Dome because I couldn’t fit any more into the bottom of this post.

Moving on from the early pessimism in this post – sleep depravity makes me that way – I still got a chance to get some early work done before breakfast and was able to check in with the world a little bit. And by that I just mean heading to the Toronto Blue Jays website to see what the team has been doing since I’ve been gone. You know, the world. It’s really weird to me knowing that the team is at home at Rogers Centre and I’m not there, because this is the first homestand I have missed in my five years of working for the club. I don’t like it, but I love what I am doing instead.

Breakfast was a teeny tiny bit different on Tuesday. There was what appeared to look like ham instead of the not-very-cooked bacon and the eggs were cooked to look like they were sunny side up as opposed to coming scrambled, and they were without ketchup so that worked well for me. I brought an individual packet of peanut butter with me that I had taken from Moxie’s at the Vancouver airport, both because peanut butter is awesome and also because yesterday one of the little packets exploded in my backpack and got all over a whole bunch of my stuff so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again and I don’t want to waste good peanut butter.

When breakfast was finished I had a little bit more time before the bus was scheduled to leave so I uploaded the pictures from the team’s visit to the temples that I didn’t manage to get to the night before. I have to say again that it was a pretty cool experience. No one but us would have been able to do such a thing.

We arrived to the stadium to a game between two very young teams. I’m a bad age-guesser but they’re little.

The itinerary for Tuesday was a little bit different from the first couple of days in Kazo City. We travelled to Urawa so the Canadian Women’s National Team could play an exhibition game against Saitawa Sakae, the best high school program in the country for young Japanese women. Because the journey to get there took a significant amount of time, there was no practice held for the squad beforehand.

Cute little Japanese kids just playing some ball on a big-time field.

When we arrived to the stadium everyone was given lunch, which was a bowl of rice and something that was supposed to be beef but looked to me like another variety of mystery meat. A lot of the meat served here is very fatty, or at least it looks that way, so a lot of the Canadian women – including me – tend to stay away from it, though I find more reasons than just that one to do so. I actually did try a couple of pieces – I am hoping my mother is beaming with pride right now – but then I just opted out and ate the rice. Mystery meat is not for me.

While we “ate” lunch and before the team took the field, we got to watch the end of a game between two very young teams. I thought it was pretty awesome and I snapped a few pictures of them. They were young boys, probably about eight years old – though my age judgments are often incredibly poor – and they were really good. They had the fundamentals of baseball down pat. It was impressive.

Both teams were solid.

When Team Canada made it out to the diamond, I headed to my post in the press box. At first and for the majority of the time I was alone in there so I utilized every single outlet I could to charge all of my technological devices and I got to work. It was going to be a big day and I didn’t want to miss out on capturing any of it. I got some more pictures uploaded and even more work done before the game began, so the day was off to a great start. Or whatever, since it was the afternoon.

Autumn Mills on the mound for Team Canada in the third exhibition game of the week.

Fellow Londoner Autumn Mills got the start for Canada and she was great. I snapped a few pictures throughout the game, excited to be on the other side of the field for once. For the first two exhibition games the team was in the third-base dugout but for this one they moved over to the first-base side. I tried to get as many pictures of the right-handed hitters that I had previously missed as I could.

Ashley Stephenson, hitting from the right side. Me, finally getting an angle from the first-base side of the field.

Autumn went four innings in the game, which surprised me because I thought it was a lot for a warmup matchup, but she only threw 65 pitches and the righty was rolling so I guess it made sense. And I’m not a manager or a pitching coach obviously so I should just stick to writing the words. Her outing ended up being a huge boost for the team though because manager Andre Lachance ended up having to use four relievers in the game.

Rookie southpaw, and the only lefty thrower on the team, Claire Eccles on the mound in the game.

Heather Healey and Claire Eccles, two teenage rookie pitchers, made their Team Canada debuts on the mound and things didn’t go quite as anyone had hoped. They each ran into some trouble and in the end gave up six runs in the seventh inning. Saitawa Sakae eventually took the game by a score of 7-1. It was good for the two young hurlers to get the nerves out of the way before the Women’s Baseball World Cup is set to begin though, and they had an experience to learn and move forward from.

Shortstop Bradi Wall added another hit to her total in the exhibition series and rookie outfielder Kelsey Lalor drove in the only run for the Canadian women with a sacrifice fly, after walking and stealing second base in her first plate appearance of the day.

Amanda Asay coming in to score the run for the Women’s National Team.

I was really proud of myself for taking a sweet picture after first baseman Amanda Asay came in for the run. I have really been trying to work on my photography skills and I am pretty sure they are getting better because I get to use them so much here. It’s awesome.

Amanda Asay coming in after scoring the run, with Kelsey Lalor right behind her in line.

When the game ended, the two teams took another picture together. It is the norm around here apparently, at least during exhibition play, and this time the other team gave everyone a gift as well. They had made Team Canada paintings with our names and some meaningful Japanese symbols. They passed them all out and they had even made one for me, which of course I thought was pretty cool. I was really amped about it, but I tried to keep my excitement on the inside.

I’m not sure which way is up on this, so I am just guessing here, but it is supposed to say my name. I think.

The team had to shower at the field, all taking turns in one of just four stalls, because we were halfway between our hotel and downtown Tokyo, where we were headed for a trip to the Embassy of Canada and then to the Tokyo Dome, so it didn’t make sense to go back to Kazo City for showers.

Double team picture again, this time with the gifts they brought for Team Canada as well.

While the team was doing that I tried to get the game story done so that it wouldn’t have to wait until we got back from the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers game. I interviewed Andre an Autumn and actually managed to finish most of it before the team was set to take off. I also got most of the game’s pictures uploaded to Facebook before we left, so that was a big plus. I didn’t want that to wait any longer than it had to.

Eventually, I finished what I had left of the story on the bus and it can be found here.

I actually enjoyed the Embassy of Canada in Tokyo a whole lot more than I thought I would. We met up with Laurie Peters right off the bat, who does public relations at the embassy and she explained a lot about the history of the building and all kinds of other things to us as she gave us a tour of the place. The building was built by a Japanese-Canadian architect and the idea was for it to fit into the neighbourhood but to have a very Canadian feel.

This is how you get up to the fourth floor, where the Canadian Embassy actually starts.

The Canadian Embassy actually starts on the fourth floor of the building. It holds a very prestigious address and at the time it was built, there was a big economic boom and the real estate was incredibly valuable. They solicited people who would build for free in exchange for the first three floors of the building for 30 years. It was the first time Canadian taxpayers didn’t pay a cent on a foreign mission. The architect was inspired by both the elevated ground floor of Canada’s portion of the building and by his childhood treehouse and wanted to build it “in the treetops”, so on the way up to the fourth floor, the escalator is open to a beautiful little landscaped forest.

Just like a treehouse.

Around the outside balcony portion of the fourth floor, there are sculptures – they looked like rocks to me, but “sculptures” was the word used in the description – meant to represent the different parts of Canada symbolically. There are Inuit rocks in one corner and then a place where you “cross the Pacific Ocean”. I took pictures of everything, things I understood and things I did not.

Canada, by way of sculptures/rocks.

There were also a lot of giant cardboard cut outs of Royal Canadian Mounted Police everywhere. I thought they were pretty awesome and I’m pretty sure I want to have one in my future house, should I ever be fortunate enough to be able to have a home of my own.

Symbolic of the Pacific Ocean.

We continued the tour with the embassy’s gallery, theatre and library. Everything in the place is free to the public when it’s open. It was not actually open when we went there but they made an exception for the Women’s National Team. They’re kind of a big deal. The library is the most popular place in the building, with people coming often to look up post-secondary institutions to travel to in Canada. They love going to school in Canada because the country is not known for having heavy accents – considering the most popular destinations are Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, I can see that – it is safe, and it is affordable for them.

Rocks on rocks, and also a pretty good view.

Before we left, the kind people at the embassy brought everyone up to the staff room for refreshments, offering a Canadian beer to everyone. They also had vending machines with french fries and hot dogs in them. I found that to be especially interesting so of course I took a picture. I also tried one of the fries from the machine because Sean bought a package of them for Penny. They weren’t bad.

The view from the top, also from the Pacific Ocean.

While everyone had their beer I talked to one of the guys who had been walking around with us. He actually was just there as a volunteer and his regular job is doing work for a huge marketing company in Japan. Originally from Edmonton, he is also a lawyer – WHAT – but he said he gets bored easily so he needs other stuff to keep him interested. Also important to note is that he lives in an eight-hundred-square-foot apartment in downtown Tokyo and rent is six thousand dollars a month. If you’re wondering if you read that right, yeah you did. SIX THOUSAND. His company pays for it and he said if they didn’t, he would live in a place that was only two thousand bucks a month. Only.

Team picture, with a cardboard cut out of an RCMP officer in the background. My fav.

We left the embassy to head straight to the Tokyo Dome, which wasn’t too far away from where we were. I had been in communication with Giants closer and Canadian Scott Mathieson throughout the day, trying to figure out whether the team could meet him before or after the game against the Tigers. He was super nice about it even though we didn’t really have a well-thought-out plan and didn’t have passes to get on the field or anything. He said he would meet us after the game wherever he could. He tried to arrange to have dinner with the coaches and staff but since we are staying in Kazo and not Tokyo, it couldn’t happen.

Another group shot, with the people at the Embassy who greeted us and gave us a tour.

Upon arriving outside of the dome, my first impression of the area was that it was pretty awesome. There were a lot of baseball shops and restaurants and other things outside the dome, plus an amusement park with huge rides and other stuff. It was kind of like an outdoor mall and it was a pretty awesome place for a ballpark.

Where we got dropped off to go to the Tokyo Dome. I later learned this cool-looking place is a discount store.

Going through the gates reminded me of the airport, just from the way it looked. I tried to stick with other people from the team because I was really afraid of getting completely lost during the game and/or not even being able to find my seat in the first place because our tickets were in Japanese. We all went the wrong way when we got inside at first, heading up to the second level only to be told we had to go back to the first. Our tickets were better than we thought.

The gates into the Tokyo Dome, where I thought it felt like airport security.

We found our seats and were quickly informed that the team was going to be on the video board at the end of the third inning, so everyone had to stay in them until then. I got some pictures of the welcome on the board and promptly left to do a little exploring afterward. I wanted to get some souvenirs to take home for my family and according to the signs I found, I had to go downstairs into what I thought was the basement in order to do that.

A shot of the dome from the outside, just in case you couldn’t figure that out without this caption.

I tried to get a Mathieson shirt but the women I was trying to speak with didn’t understand anything I was saying and we couldn’t make it happen. I ended up buying three shirts, even though I thought I was only purchasing two, and had no idea what sizes they were or what they said on them or even what they looked like because they were in tiny plastic packages with Japanese characters on the labels. Also as a side note, one of the women I was trying to deal with had an eye patch. The whole thing was an adventure. I got some keychains for my cousins and a few other small things and left not really sure about what had happened. If only I could read or speak Japanese.

Not a bad view from our seats. Not bad at all.

Adjacent to the stand where I had purchased my souvenirs, I found crepes with what appeared to be bananas and chocolate inside of them, at least according to the picture. I wanted to get a message across to the vendor that I didn’t want whipped cream on mine, so I tried to point to it and use makeshift sign language, but as it turns out the guy understood me anyway. What a jerk I am, making assumptions like that. Right next to the crepe stand was a popcorn vendor with souvenir cups, so obviously I had to buy that too. It came full of caramel corn and I am not really into caramel corn so it might have been a waste, minus the container it came in. The cup is awesome and honestly could probably double as a purse, since it has a handle. Not bad.

Another view from our seats, to the left.

O my way back to my seat I ran into a dude who looked pretty North American so I said hello and he extended a greeting in return. It was as if we knew each other. I guess that’s what happens when you finally find someone who speaks your own language on the other side of the world. Minus the crepe guy who spoke English. And the team. You get the idea.

Annnnnd to the right.

I made it back upstairs with all of my freshly-purchased goods and joined everyone in the seats. I shared my great food choices with them, pretty proud of what I accomplished during my brief mid-inning shopping trip. Other people had found hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fries and other things that looked good but no one truly knew if they were what we thought they were. I learned that a couple of the players had also tried the roller coaster outside of the stadium before coming in for the game too and apparently it was an enjoyable experience.

The roller coaster outside of the Tokyo Dome. I didn’t try it but some people did.

The Yomiuri Giants were losing for the entire game before eventually walking it off in the bottom of the ninth. The atmosphere the entire time was absolutely crazy and amazing. There were more than fifty thousand fans, it was a packed house, everyone was cheering and wearing jerseys and making noise and it was really cool. In left field, there was an entire outfield section dedicated to the visiting fans, who cheered, played music, sang and yelled throughout every Tigers at-bat, on their feet the entire time. When the home team came up to the plate, a dedicated section in right field with flags and noisemakers and all kinds of crazy instruments made noise for them. Here’s a quick video.

Hanshin Tigers fans, taking up an entire outfield section in left.

When the Giants mounted their comeback, the fans got even crazier, if you can imagine. And when they finally walked it off, it was nuts. Here’s a quick video of that. Then, oddly enough after the game they picked the player or players of the matchup (I think) and brought them out to a portable stage in the middle of the field to ask them questions and give them a giant teddy bear version of the mascot as a kind of trophy. It was weird but kind of awesome at the same time.

Yomiuri Giants right-field fans, making all kinds of noise throughout the home team at-bats.

Leaving the stadium was a little nuts too. It was crazy busy of course, but then when we walked through the entry on the way out, we were blown out the door by a strong gust of wind, apparently because of the pressure in the dome. I assume that’s what shooting out of a rocket feels like, and I hope to never really know.

Team picture with Yomiuri Giants Canadian closer Scott Mathieson.

We walked over to the Baseball Café to meet Scott, because he had agreed to find us there post-game. He talked about his experiences with Team Canada and how great it was for him and how much he cherished his moments with Baseball Canada. He said he hopes to someday play for the national squad again, and also mentioned that he loves the fact that baseball can take you places like Japan and all over the world. He was great.

A few times while Scott was talking to the team, young boys would walk up and try to join the group, taking pictures of him or waving or waiting for his autograph. He mentioned that in Tokyo he can usually get around without too much hassle, not always being stopped by fans, but in the other cities in the league his presence is more obvious.

The mascot.

I wanted to interview him for a story for the Baseball Canada website but we were already rushing to return to our hotel in Kazo and presumably he needed to get home as well. I should have recorded the whole talk that he had with the team but I was on the outskirts of the semicircle and I couldn’t hear everything and wouldn’t have been able to record it all. I asked him if I could email some questions afterward though and he said he would be happy to answer. What a guy.

We found our bus shortly thereafter and took the hour-long (ish) ride back to the hotel, where I promptly passed out for the night. It was a big day.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/wait-the-tokyo-dome-isnt-one-of-the-wonders-of-the-world/feed/0wnt (14)alexisbrudnickiOh you know, just a picture of the Tokyo Dome because I couldn't fit any more into the bottom of this post. We arrived to the stadium to a game between two very young teams. I'm a bad age-guesser but they're little. Cute little Japanese kids just playing some ball on a big-time field. Both teams were solid. Autumn Mills on the mound for Team Canada in the third exhibition game of the week. Ashley Stephenson, hitting from the right side. Me, finally getting an angle from the first-base side of the field.Rookie southpaw, and the only lefty thrower on the team, Claire Eccles on the mound in the game.Amanda Asay coming in to score the run for the Women's National Team.Amanda Asay coming in after scoring the run, with Kelsey Lalor right behind her in line.I'm not sure which way is up on this, so I am just guessing here, but it is supposed to say my name. I think. Double team picture again, this time with the gifts they brought for Team Canada as well. wnt (56)This is how you get up to the fourth floor, where the Canadian Embassy actually starts.Just like a treehouse.Canada, by way of sculptures/rocks. Symbolic of the Pacific Ocean.Rocks on rocks, and also a pretty good view. The view from the top, also from the Pacific Ocean. Team picture, with a cardboard cut out of an RCMP officer in the background. My fav.Another group shot, with the people at the Embassy who helped us and gave us a tour. Where we got dropped off to go to the Tokyo Dome. I later learned this cool-looking place is a discount store.The gates into the Tokyo Dome, where I thought it felt like airport security. A shot of the dome from the outside, just in case you couldn't figure that out without this caption.Not a bad view from our seats. Not bad at all.Another view from our seats, to the left.Annnnnd to the right.The roller coaster outside of the Tokyo Dome. I didn't try it but some people did. Hanshin Tigers fans, taking up an entire outfield section in left. Yomiuri Giants right-field fans, making all kinds of noise throughout the home team at-bats.Team picture with Yomiuri Giants Canadian closer Scott Mathieson. The mascot.Getting into the Japanese groove of thingshttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/getting-into-the-japanese-groove-of-things/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/getting-into-the-japanese-groove-of-things/#respondWed, 03 Sep 2014 03:10:50 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=450Continue reading →]]>Early to rise seems to be the motto so far in Japan.

Once again, I awoke earlier than I wanted or planned to because of jet lag or time changes or all of the above (are they the same thing?). The result was getting some work done because I had absolutely nothing else to do, so maybe not a completely bad thing. Minus the sleep deprivation of course. Eventually it was time for breakfast – the exact same meal as it was on Sunday – so I got out of my room for that.

Unfortunately I have not been able to stick to my marathon training plan of late, with all of the writing and working and trying to crank out material like there’s no tomorrow. Well, one of these tomorrows is going to be the date of my 10th marathon, and even though my plan was to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I think I may need to set my sights a little lower. And I need to try to get back to proper training. I guess it might have been an option to go running with all of the extra morning hours, but I feel as though I constantly need to catch up on writing and that’s been my priority over the last few days. I did get a little more writing in after breakfast and before everyone headed to the bus for morning practice, so that was a plus.

We arrived at the same ballpark the team had practiced at on Sunday, so I had a better understanding of the facilities and the routine of the team, so I was able to get into the office right away and set up my computer and camera and tablets and all of the technology I am so reliant upon. I finished up some of the things I had been working on at the hotel and finally got going on the media guide for the Women’s National Team. It should have been done in BC but I had to go through and edit all of the photos we took for it and sort through the notes I needed to add to each player’s section.

Autumn Mills, regularly a starter for the Women’s National Team, taking some balls in the outfield.

I stayed in the little office behind home plate at Kazo City Municipal Sports Center until the team took to the field and then I went out to get some more pictures. I have said this on numerous occasions, but I really enjoy taking the photos and all of the feedback regarding the ones I have posted on various social media sites has been incredibly positive. The squad’s outfielders were doing drills in left field, so I spent a significant amount of time there because I rarely get any good pictures of the outfielders during games. My camera lens isn’t great enough to zoom in that far and it’s hard to focus on the player as opposed to the background from a distance. So I started in the outfield, because those players never get any love, and then moved to the pitchers and infielders.

Ella Matteucci in the outfield for Team Canada.

While I was snapping away in the infield, I heard my name being shouted from left field. At first, I thought there was no way anyone could be yelling for me, so I kind of ignored it. Then I realized the outfielders were calling me back out and asking me to bring my camera, so I hustled out to left to join them. They were doing a hilarious drill and they wanted to capture the memories on my Nikon 5100 forever.

Centre fielder Niki Boyd taking a look to get under the ball.

Each of the outfielders had their batting helmets on and they were without gloves. Patricia Landry, the outfield coach, was hitting tennis balls with a tennis racquet up high in the air and each player had to hustle to get under the ball and then allow it to hit them in the head and bounce off of their helmet. You can imagine the hilarity. Actually, you don’t have to because I have photographic evidence of the occurrence, thanks to the outfielders calling me back to get some.

Yep, just off the helmet.

When practice ended, the players and staff went over to an indoor gymnasium at the same sports complex to have Subway sandwiches. Everyone had ordered six-inch sandwiches because we learned while we were in Surrey that a footlong sub was a little too much for lunchtime. But apparently in Japan the sandwiches are a lot smaller, and of course, a little different in pretty much every way. I ordered a roasted chicken sandwich, and I can’t be sure that what came in the middle of the bread.We also found out that half of our party had come into the room we were in through the wrong entrance, really upsetting some of the Japanese people who work in the building. Everyone had to take their shoes off upon entering – quite common in Japan – and I guess some of the local employees saw all of the strange shoes at their staff entrance and it really disrupted their day. So when we left lunch all of our shoes were out in the middle of the foyer of the correct entrance. I was one of the people who came in the wrong way. Oops.

Outfield coach Patricia Landry with the racquet and tennis balls for the drill.

After the meal, everyone made their way back to the field to pack up all of their equipment to load on the bus for the afternoon’s game. I grabbed all of my belongings from the office – which might actually be considered a press box now that I think about it – only to run into one of our translators on my way to our transportation and hear that the game would actually be played exactly where we were. There was no need to move or go anywhere. The team playing the second exhibition matchup against the Canadian women would be coming to them. So everyone unpacked their things and started to get ready for game time.

When the Japanese University All-Stars arrived – Monday’s opponent – they started to tend to the field. They were raked the infield and drew the chalk lines and no one really seemed to think that it was weird that the visiting team would show up and work the field before the game except for me. I thought it was really weird. Even one of the umpires started to help them out.

Just before game time against the Japanese University All-Stars.

As we waited for the game to start, I headed out of the office to see what was going on outside. Sitting outside of the dugout, veteran first baseman Kate Posta was talking to our bus driver and another Japanese guy. I joined the conversation as she offered them Skittles and Sour Patch Kids. The first man tried the sour candies and was not at all into them. Then he had some Skittles and couldn’t believe that his tongue had turned a different colour. It was hilarious. Then Kate offered some to the bus driver. He had seen the other guy’s tongue turn colours so he concentrated on doing that to his own and then looked shocked every time he ate one and checked his tongue out in the mirror. I was laughing hysterically off to the side, but maybe you had to be there. It was a highlight for sure.

The best opposing uni of the game. In my opinion, obviously. I’m the one writing this.

The game got underway and Melissa Armstrong took the mound for the Canadian women’s team. The righty from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan went two innings and surrendered an early run in the first to give the Japanese team a quick lead. Team Canada came back for one in the second on an RBI-single from centre fielder Niki Boyd, however.

Melissa Armstrong on the mound for Team Canada to start the matchup.

Armstrong was piggybacked by Cindy Saavedra who came in for another two innings and go into some trouble in the fourth. She committed two errors, one worth two bases, and gave up three unearned runs and giving the all-stars four in total. The Canadian squad once again mounted a comeback, striking for two in the fifth, thanks to another big hit from shortstop Bradi Wall. Wall drove in two runs with a single and brought her exhibition tournament total to four RBI in two games.

Bradi Wall comes up big for the second game in a row during the Japanese exhibition series.

Most impressive in the game was Ottawa’s Hannah Martensen. She came in for the final two innings of the matchup and retired the side in order twice, shutting down six of their hitters with just 16 pitches. The hitters couldn’t get anything more going however, and they dropped the second exhibition game by a score of 4-3. Full story can be found here.

The Japanese submariner the University All-Stars threw against the Women’s National Team.

After the game the team took a picture with the opposition, something that they seem to be making a habit of, at least during exhibition play. I still find it really interesting that they do that, considering they are the competition, plus they cleaned the field ahead of time. I guess casual post-game pics with both teams are just a part of the deal. I would consider this to be atypical if it were anywhere but Japan but right now anything and everything could be considered normal and I wouldn’t know what’s what. It’s a whole new world.

Just a casual post-game pic between frienemies.

From the game, we all headed right back to the hotel to quickly get ready for an official visit to City Hall. The team was invited by Kazo City’s Mayor Ryouichi Ohashi to come for a welcome and greeting. When we arrived, we were welcomed warmly by the city’s civil servants. The team had two translators for the event and as instructed, had to sit around a big table in the middle of the room in alphabetical order.

Mayor Ryouichi Ohashi of Kazo City.

The mayor was introduced and addressed everyone, telling us about carp streamers (I’ll explain in a minute) and baseball in Kazo and Japan and then wished Team Canada good luck in the tournament, making sure to mention to take it easy on the Japanese team. Andre then had to address everyone and he did a great job, though I think his interpreter had some difficulty with the translation going from English – with a French accent – to Japanese. Then each member of the team had to stand up, say their name, where they are from, and then, “Nice to meet you.” The mayor and his delegates then did the same, and they even did theirs in English. Even so, it got old after a little while.

Carp streamers at the entrance to City Hall.

So, carp streamers. We got an explanation for them and I made sure to grab it so that I could give an accurate portrayal of what they are and why they are significant.

The carp streamer in the meeting room where Team Canada was welcomed.

“The Boy’s Festival is celebrated on May 5th,” it read. “In Japanese it is called Tango no Sekku, which is one of Japan’s main annual festivals. On this day, paper or cloth streamers in the shape of carp (calleld Koinobori) are hoisted up tall poles in the yards of families who have sons. The parents hope that their boys will grow up healthy and strong by overcoming all obstacles, just like a carp, which fights its way up swift streams and little waterfalls. Some of the cloth carp are 10 metres (32.8 feet) long. It is a magnificent sight to see Koinobori of various colours swimming in the air.

“Special rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves are eaten on this day, and iris leaves are placed under the eaves to fend off evil spirits.”

The Canadian Women’s National Team with the Mayor of Kazo City, Japan.

You may not have needed that last part of the explanation, but here we are.

Before we took off from City Hall, everyone had to squeeze in for a group photo, of course. But we were on our way to a different destination than we had planned originally. We were supposed to be going to the mall for dinner and shopping but to our surprise, the mayor arranged a visit to a Buddhist temple to meet a priest as a good luck gesture. The shrine was only open for the day and was only open to us, so it was a really special thing for the team. And it ended up being a lot more interesting than anyone thought it might be.

Traditional group shot.

We drove to our destination and were immediately surrounded by temples. I was told that it was okay to take pictures everywhere, after checking because I didn’t want to make anyone mad, and so I did. I took a lot of photos.

First we had to walk around the temples and back through one of them in a particular sequence, to a fountain with water coming out of a dragon. We had to pour water on our hands, one at a time, in order, and then we went into the temple with the priest. I’m not sure what the whole procedure was for, or what the meaning behind it was, but I am positive it was significant.

The first temple was crazy beautiful and full of gold things. The priest – not sure if that’s what he’s called but I’m going with it – did a prayer of some sort. He asked everyone to be respectful of his religion no matter what theirs was. I thought that was a good thing to do. The prayer also included loud drum banging, which was really surprising at first. Quite a shock, actually.

We all moved together from there into another temple with amazingly painted ceilings. They were awesome. There were more jewels in there as well. He spoke more about the team and wished them good luck I think and then said he had to cut it short because we had to go. Everyone was pretty hungry so as cool as that was, I think it was probably for the best.

We rode to the mall and we had a reservation at a buffet-style restaurant there. That was interesting and there were some experiments done by different members of the squad in terms of food ingestion. I found what I thought might be chicken balls or something like that, and they actually had octopus inside. I also found what I thought was a tempura vegetable of some sort, and it turned out to be a whole fish with bones and everything inside of it. The restaurant had a waffle maker, so eventually I settled on waffles, some shrimp sashimi, a little bit of rice and a curry-like substance, and a lot of ice cream. My first shot at the ice cream was a mistake because I thought it was a drink, so I ended up with it in a cup. Then I went back for more.

After dinner there was some time to go through the mall a little bit, but the people I was sitting with all stayed and heard stories about conditions in Venezuela and Cuba from Autumn Mills, Ashley Stephenson and Kate Psota, which was eye-opening. They talked about terrential downpours, flooding in their hotel rooms, dealing with hurricanes, having so many bugs they thought the floor had a speckled pattern, being in Venezuela when one of the players was shot during a previous World Cup, and having to be escorted everywhere there by military. I also found it interesting that during the tournament in Venezuela, Team USA couldn’t even walk in the opening ceremonies because it was too dangerous for them.

So there should be no complaints in Japan.

The beautifully painted ceiling at one of the temples.

We wandered around the mall a little bit before leaving and stopped at the pet store. I made best friends with a tiny little baby puppy of some unknown breed and wanted to get him so badly. I honestly thought a little bit about how I could hide him in my bag and take him home. He was waving through the glass and tilting his head when I moved, and other people can vouch for this. I was sad to leave him.

One more shot of the temples.

We took a tiny bus back to the hotel even though we were supposed to have cabs. I’m not sure where the regular bus was, and I don’t know how they deal with so much changing of the plans but everyone seems to be fine to just go with it. We made it back and even though I was exhausted I still had to finish the game story before I could hit the sack. I had arranged to talk to Hannah about her impressive performance, and she was ready to do that right away so that worked out perfectly. I got the story online and again, it’s right here.

I was really tired after that but I tried to get a little more writing done and read some things to keep up with what was going on back home but I fell asleep almost immediately with my alarm set for almost 10 hours later and really hoping to wake up to it and not earlier.

Here’s hoping.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/getting-into-the-japanese-groove-of-things/feed/036.131438 139.60171936.131438139.601719alexis (12)alexisbrudnickiAutumn Mills, regularly a starter for the Women's National Team, taking some balls in the outfield. Ella Matteucci in the outfield for Team Canada. Taking a look to get under the ball. Yep, just off the helmet.Outfield coach Patricia Landry with the racquet and tennis balls for the drill. Just before game time against the Japanese University All-Stars. The best opposing uni of the game. In my opinion, obviously. I'm the one writing this. Melissa Armstrong on the mound for Team Canada to start the matchup. Bradi Wall comes up big for the second game in a row during the Japanese exhibition series.The Japanese submariner the University All-Stars threw against the Women's National Team.Just a casual post-game pic between frienemies.Mayor Ryouichi Ohashi of Kazo City. Carp streamers at the entrance to City Hall. The carp streamer in the meeting room where Team Canada was welcomed. The Canadian Women's National Team with the Mayor of Kazo City, Japan. Traditional group shot. alexis (19)alexis (27)alexis (8)alexis (7)alexis (12)The beautifully painted ceiling at one of the temples. One more shot of the temples. “I am Japaneeeese!”https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/i-am-japaneeeese/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/i-am-japaneeeese/#respondWed, 03 Sep 2014 02:51:14 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=436Continue reading →]]>Because I am terrible at crossing the International Date Line and travelling through time, I woke up around four in the morning to start the first full day in Kazo City, Japan.

The view from outside of our hotel, Kazo Center Hotel, from one side.

It didn’t seem so bad because I felt wide awake – also hungry – and ready for the day, so I got some work done and finished getting some posts online and ate half of the bag of Corn Flakes that made the trip with me from Vancouver. I had also bought a Pepsi Next from a vending machine on Saturday – I think that’s what day yesterday was, but I am confused – so I had a breakfast of champions.

The view from outside of the hotel, from the other side.

Well, a pre-breakfast of champions. After a few hours it was time to head down to the hotel lobby for our continental breakfast. The team and staff had to do the meal in shifts so the coaches and other staff members – including me – had the earliest one at seven-fifteen. Obviously I was up and at ‘em and ready for it, so that was no problem. Also, I would like to note that the title of this post, and the category that several of my posts live in under the same name, is a reference to this video of Toronto Blue Jays infielder Munenori Kawasaki.

The restaurant at the Kazo Center Hotel where we ate every single morning.

When I got to the continental breakfast at Kazo Center Hotel, a couple other Baseball Canada people were there, sitting at a table on the floor with their shoes off. I joined but made the mistake of placing my shoes backward on the ground so I had to fix that. I’m not sure what the reason was but I am sure it had something to do with respect. We sorted it out before I made anyone feel disrespected though, I think.

Breakfast every day at Kazo Center Hotel.

The breakfast served at the hotel offered a pretty good selection. Everyone got a plate with toast, an egg omelet with ketchup on it, a bun with butter already inside of it, a salad and bean sprout mixture of some sort, and a slice of meat. I had already filled up on Corn Flakes, plus I’m not a fan of salad, mystery meat or ketchup on eggs, so I had some eggs and all of the carbohydrates on the plate and I was good to go. It also came with something that looked like it could be milk, and orange juice, so I opted for the latter.

Post-meal I had to head back up to my room and shower, because I obviously didn’t have enough time to do that during the three hours I had been awake prior to breakfast. For tiny rooms, they are very efficient, but I have to say that the ‘tub’ portion of the shower is incredibly tall. I banged my knee pretty hard trying to get into it and then had some trouble climbing over it. I figured it out though, and managed to shower without further problems, in case you were worried about me. I posted a few pictures of the room in yesterday’s post, in case you need another look.

Everyone took off together for the first practice in Japan from there. We were joined by our interpreter, Rena, our fantastic Japanese business manager or something to that effect, Hiroko, and then also some extra people who would be with us for the duration of our time in Kazo City. Greg West was one of those people, a Canadian transplant to Japan who actually hails from London, Ontario! He came to Japan 20 years ago to teach English and never went back. We immediately started to talk London and home and he was incredibly helpful and answered all of my questions. I had a lot of them.

The first practice for Team Canada in Japan. Note how much darker the dirt is, plus the all-dirt infield.

The practice diamond wasn’t far from where we were staying, and it was nice. The dirt in Japan is darker – and apparently a lot harder to get out of clothes – and there is no grass on the infields here, so it looks different and the field plays faster. I took a lot of pictures of the team during practice and while we were on the field, Greg was so kind as to go and pick me up an adapter for my laptop as well, so I could have a place to upload all of those pictures and actually get some work done. When he left, he wasn’t sure how much it would be, but I told him I needed it so it didn’t matter. When he got back, he pleasantly surprised me with the news that it was only five bucks, or five hundred Japanese yen. Great start to the day right there.

I find it incredibly difficult to take good pictures of the outfielders during games, so I snapped a few during practice. This is 15-year-old Emma Carr.

I should mention here that it is very hot in Kazo City, and likely in most parts of Japan but this is the only one we are in for now. A heat stroke warning was projected over the loudspeaker at the ballpark during practice. I have no complaints because I was not one of the hardworking women out on the field getting ready for the upcoming Women’s Baseball World Cup in Miyazaki, but in order to be informative I will say that sweating was immediate. You could not be outside without perspiring. A LOT. I don’t mean that glowing kind of sweat that crazy people talk about.

When practice ended we all hopped on our two team buses to travel together to Heisei International University, for lunch, to watch a game, and then for the team to play a game against the 18-and-under Japanese national all-star team. The all-stars were selected from the tournament currently going on at the university, I think.

Our arrival was much-anticipated by some of the young Japanese players. They were waving and cheering and high-fiving everyone. I felt a little bit like a celebrity, even though they had clearly mistaken me for an athlete. I can’t lie and say I didn’t dish out some fist bumps though.

Lunch was incredibly westernized. We had a variety of pizzas.

Heisei International University Baseball Stadium, though I hope you figured out that last part on your own.

After we finished the team’s pre-game meal, everyone headed outside to the main stadium to watch a game between two teams in the tournament. It was my first experience of all of the Japanese cheering and noise-making and it was awesome. They had drums and other interesting instruments and they were loud and cheering through the whole thing. I am not really sure if the people cheering to the sides of the dugouts were other members of the teams or students from the university or what, but it was cool.

We sat in the stands as long as the team could stand the heat and then headed to an indoor practice facility just behind the field so the Canadian women could warm up and prepare for their own game. I opted to join them because there was shade, and also to stay with the group, obviously. But, shade.

The first Japanese exhibition game for the Canadian Women’s National Team, facing the 18U Japanese National All-Stars.

Finally, we got to game time and Heidi Northcott got the start for the Women’s National Team, coming off of an incredibly long journey from Vancouver to Kazo City less than 24 hours before doing so. Team manager Andre Lachance is using piggyback starters for the duration of the exhibition games, meaning that multiple starters will pitch back-to-back in the matchups. The pitchers need time to build up their innings before the World Cup, and all of them need to start to get work in.

Heidi Northcott got the first start of the exhibition series in Japan.

Heidi went two innings and was followed by Vanessa Riopel for three frames and then Amanda Asay came in for two to finish it off (seven-inning games, in case you couldn’t figure out the math). The Canadian squad won the first game in Japan in style, with shortstop Bradi Wall walking the team off with a two-run double to the wall after being down by one heading into the bottom of the final inning (they did rock-paper-scissors to determine who would be the home team and Canada won).

Vanessa Riopel, right-handed starter for Team Canada.

Throughout the first few innings of the game, I stayed in the dugout and took pictures of the team in their uniforms. My camera is great and I love it but it isn’t really high-tech enough, or my lens isn’t big enough, to get pictures of the outfielders, so I got the infielders, pitchers, and a few of the left-handed batters, because we were in the dugout on the third-base side. I am hoping to somehow even things out eventually.

Shortstop Bradi Wall, walking the team off for the first victory of the trip to Japan.

When I figured I should probably start writing about some of the things happening in the game – though I was tweeting updates every half inning – I went inside to a press-box-like structure, but not before making a cultural mistake. I had gone in to the press box (that’s what we will call it) the wrong way and I ran into a team of young girls in the first room I saw. I asked them how to get to where I was trying to go and I guess my hand gestures were strong enough for them to recognize what I was asking because they directed me. But then I stepped inside the room and they all stopped with their shocked expressions. I couldn’t wear my shoes inside. So I had to take my shoes off and walk into the press box without them. It felt wrong.

The Japanese all-stars took a three-run lead in the first and the Canadian women didn’t hold a lead the entire game until they walked off. I was really glad they pulled out the first win of the week though.

After the game, the local team wanted a picture with the visiting squad, so of course Team Canada obliged. Then I spoke with the team’s skipper as we waited to leave the stadium and head back to the hotel. As soon as we got back, I also talked to starting pitcher Heidi Northcott and then to Bradi Wall about her walkoff hit. The complete game story, with tidbits from each of the aforementioned people can be found here.

Even though I thought it was weird, the opposing team wanted a post-game picture with Team Canada. Good sportsmanship I guess, or something like that.

We had about an hour at the hotel for everyone to shower and get ready before we left as a team for dinner. Andre, plus two of the coaches, Patricia Landry and Sean O’Brien, were the only ones not attending, because they had been invited to a much fancier meal at the vice mayor’s house. I am not really sure what that means other than they weren’t with us for dinner. I wanted to try to finish the game story before leaving the hotel so I opted out of showering, but in the end I didn’t finish it so it didn’t make a difference anyway.

A few of the other’s teams players wanted an extra photo with Japanese-Canadian pitcher Claire Eccles.

The restaurant was a short walk from Kazo Center Hotel, where we are staying through the week of exhibition games, and for some reason our itinerary for our first real dinner in Japan included a meal at a Chinese restaurant. Yep, we went for Chinese.

I – obviously – asked around about why we would do such a thing. Apparently it’s because Chinese food is universally accepted and they wanted to take it easy on us. But the meal we had was nothing like the Chinese food that you would order or picture at home. Not even close.

We were split up into tables of four to six people – luckily our table ended up with the translator – and in the middle of the table was something that I personally thought looked like a deep frying contraption. As it turned out it was some kind of boiler, with two types of what Rena called soup (we thought one was oil and the other was just unidentifiable) for us to boil our food in. We were given several trays of raw food and we cooked it ourselves in the middle of our table.

The devices in the middle of each table at the Chinese restaurant for us to cook our own food in.

It was actually really good in the end and it was fun to go through the adventure of trying to figure out how to cook our food, if it actually was ready, and then how to extract it from the contraption without hurting ourselves. We completed these tasks moderately well. And then, they gave us ice cream for dessert. All in all, a good experience.

When we got back to the hotel I finished the game story and posted it online at the Baseball Canada website. I had much more luck on my laptop – now that I had an adapter – than I had the previous night with my backup computer (my tablet), so I think that was the problem. It almost went off without a hitch, but not really. I still had to send several emails to Baseball Canada’s regular media liaison Adam Morissette in order to try and figure out what I was doing wrong. He has been incredibly patient with me.

I also uploaded all of the best pictures I had taken throughout the day to the Baseball Canada Facebook page. There were a lot of pictures to go through. But I really loved taking them and I think it’s good to get as many as possible of them out there to help the awareness of the national team. There aren’t a lot of people who know that women play baseball, let alone are participating in big events such as the one I am privileged enough to attend.

Eventually I hit the hay for the night, hoping that I was tired enough – because I definitely felt like I was – to sleep through the night. That’s the idea. Maybe tonight will be the night.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/i-am-japaneeeese/feed/036.131438 139.60171936.131438139.601719wnt (152)alexisbrudnickiThe view from outside of our hotel, Kazo Center Hotel, from one side. The view from outside of the hotel, from one side. The restaurant at the Kazo Center Hotel where we ate every single morning. Breakfast every day at Kazo Center Hotel. The first practice for Team Canada in Japan. Note how much darker the dirt is, plus the all-dirt infield. I find it incredibly difficult to take good pictures of the outfielders during games, so I snapped a few during practice. This is 15-year-old Emma Carr. Heisei International University Baseball Stadium, though I hope you figured out that last part on your own.The first Japanese exhibition game for the Canadian Women's National Team, facing the 18U Japanese National All-Stars.Heidi Northcott got the first start of the exhibition series in Japan. Vanessa Riopel, right-handed starter for Team Canada. Bradi Wallwnt (133)Even though I thought it was weird, the opposing team wanted a post-game picture with Team Canada. Good sportsmanship I guess, or something like that.A few of the other's teams players wanted an extra photo with Japanese-Canadian pitcher Claire Eccles. The devices in the middle of each table at the Chinese restaurant for us to cook our own food in. wnt (152)I might be allergic to Japanhttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/i-might-be-allergic-to-japan/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/i-might-be-allergic-to-japan/#commentsTue, 02 Sep 2014 00:35:12 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=412Continue reading →]]>It’s go time.

Team Canada’s equipment bags all packed up and ready to go to the Vancouver airport en route to Japan.

The flight for the Canadian Women’s National Team and staff didn’t leave until almost two-thirty in the afternoon but we were all up pretty early getting things organized and packed up into a few vans and taking off from the hotel four-and-a-half hours ahead of time to fight through traffic from Surrey to Vancouver and get all of our international dealings done and over with.

I showered and finished packing and unplugging all of my freshly-charged devices in time to take my stuff to the vans before most people got there. It didn’t take long to get everything in and we were soon on our way in a caravan of three vehicles for almost an hour trip to the airport.

There, we added our party of almost 30 people to the already-long lineups for everything. When I finally got through the first luggage lineup, my bag was overweight (of course). Thankfully, Cindy Saavedra – right-handed relief pitcher – was next to me and had extra room in her baseball bag. My camera was at the top of my suitcase, so I pulled it out and handed it over, and with the loss of that and my hairdryer, we were all good to go. Basically, she saved my life.

While half of the members of our party waited for the other half to get their luggage through, a few of us went to the currency exchange office at the airport. I am sure we probably took a large stash of the Japanese yen they keep because everyone was looking for some. I had already purchased a little bit at the kiosk at Masonville Mall in London, just to see what it was like, but I got some more at the airport. The exchange rate was better, but they charge commission so it evened itself out on the savings.

After some complicated decision-making, the team and staff decided we would grab some food to eat on the other side of airport security, making sure we got through first before we did anything else. Wise choice, I would say.

Vanessa Riopel, right-handed starter for the Women’s National Team, also got stuck at airport security with me.

As I went through the pre-screening area of the security line, I was once AGAIN flagged. The customs agent, or whoever they are, also grabbed Vanessa Riopel – a righty starter from Quebec – because she was in line behind me, so he let us “stay together.” Sorry, Vanessa. He wanded us down and went through our carryon bags, but this time he actually let us go and it ended up being faster than if we had waited in the regular line. We zoomed right up to the front, unlike that time I tested positive for explosives. Yeah, that.

We smiled and waved at the rest of the team as we walked past them, laughing at their inquisitive faces. But then we had to wait for them before we went to eat and made our next move anyway, so it really didn’t matter at all. Not one bit.

The majority of Baseball Canada’s passengers – myself included – opted for lunch at Milestones, where they happened to be serving a lovely brunch. I sat with Cindy and Bradi Wall – Team Canada’s shortstop, originally from Swift Current, Saskatchewan – and we all ordered brunch food. We tried to do so as fast as possible so that we would get ours first, but it really didn’t end up working out that way. While we were sitting, waiting, and getting to know each other a little better, they mentioned they were enjoying all of the pictures I was taking and posting on Facebook of the team, so that made me feel a little great, obviously.

Bradi Wall, lunchmate and shortstop.

Our food took a while, but we had time to stop at Tim Horton’s before our plane took off. Some of the other women wanted to get coffees and things of that nature but I grabbed an extra bagel and a muffin just in case I wasn’t into the food on the plane. This would turn out to be a good choice, in addition to the stellar move I made before we left Moxie’s, taking the extra individual packets of peanut butter at our table. Genius.

I also made a pitstop at the Duty Free shop to get some Canadian goods to bring to Scott Mathieson when we go to the Yomiuri Giants game in Tokyo against the Hanshin Tigers. I purchased maple syrup in a maple bottle plus some vanilla and chocolate maple cookies. And then I might have also purchased a small bottle of vodka, just because the glass it’s in is shaped like a skull and I thought it was cool. I am an impulse buyer and I understand that to be one of my faults.

It wasn’t long before we were loading ourselves onto the plane. I was on an aisle in the middle row, but quickly moved to the aisle of a side row beside rookie Kelsey Lalor when I saw it was empty. As soon as I switched seats, I saw that three seats in the row behind me were empty all next to each other, so I moved again and sat there so I could stretch out if I wanted to. The guy at the other side of the row of four seats probably wasn’t too impressed, but whatever. We each had at least two to ourselves. The plane seemed really nice though, and Japan Airlines had individual pillows, blankets, television sets, toothbrushes, you name it. It reminded me of flying Qantas to Australia, which I enjoyed very much.

As we started to take off, I put on the movie Transcendence, not knowing anything about it. I fell asleep about 20 minutes in, though I wouldn’t determine that until later. When I woke up – figured out later that it was a little under an hour’s worth of naptime – a Japanese flight attendant was asking me to choose my meal, by pointing at one of two pictures.

I chose, and ended up with a bottle of water (drank that), a normal-looking salad and dressing (gave that to one of the players) a fruit cup (also gave that away), some sort of weird pasta salad-like mixture with a slice of what appeared to be ham folded on top into a triangle (couldn’t give that away), a tiny portion of plain noodles with a tiny plastic bottle labelled ‘Noodle Sauce’ (ate that), and a rice/carrot/green bean/chicken mix that I think they called chicken cattiatore (tried it, ingested some of it). Then the bagel, peanut butter and muffin came out. They were all good choices.

Self-explanatory.

After dinner, or whatever meal it was supposed to be, I went back to Transcendence and tried to figure out where I had left off. Rewinding the movie helped me deduce how long I had been asleep and when I first passed out.

While I watched my movie, I went to work finishing my story on the team’s rookies and moving onto some catching up on my blogging. I might not have had my full attention on the film, but it was a little bit weird for me. When it finished, I put on Spiderman 2 and continued to work while half watching. I waited after the movie’s credits to see if there would be any additional scenes or previews for another movie, but if there is, they don’t have them on the plane version. When that was done, there was still almost four hours left in the flight and so I continued to work. My third and final go-to movie was The Other Woman. The choices were limited and I wasn’t really watching the films anyway so it was a good enough pick for what I needed it to do. I finally got through a couple of blog posts, so I could add pictures and set them free on the Internet when we landed.

I started to get really tired with just an hour left in the flight but couldn’t sleep. I no longer had any idea what time it was or what time my body might have thought it was, or what I should have been doing in that moment if I hadn’t flown across the world. I tried to stay hydrated because I heard that would help me with jet lag, something I am terrible at dealing with, but I had no idea if it would work.

JAPAN! The view from the top.

After leaving Vancouver at two-thirty in the afternoon on Friday, we arrived in Tokyo at four-thirty in the afternoon on Saturday. Just before our arrival was when I realized I had somehow missed almost two full days of story opportunities, not posting anything Friday or Saturday. But then somehow it was also only Friday night at home so I really only missed one day. It’s all very confusing.

We had to fill out customs forms before we landed and I really had no idea whether or not I had done mine correctly, but I figured it would be good enough because there would be other people in the same boat as me right in front of me in line throughout the process. When we went through customs we had to give our fingerprints and let them take a head shot before we picked up our luggage.

I’d been told that the best place to get portable wifi was at the airport so after we had all gathered our belongings and before we hopped on the bus to travel to Kazo City from Tokyo, I tried to have a look around to purchase what I needed. I talked to one person who spoke a little bit of English but I couldn’t deduce if he knew what I was looking for and actually had it to sell to me or not. I opted out of purchasing with reassurance from our group that we would find Internet elsewhere.

After a more-than-10-hour flight I am sure what everyone wants to do is go on a several-hour bus ride, so that’s exactly what we did, though a couple of hours on the bus isn’t as bad as when Team Canada was last in Japan and had to take an eight-hour bus ride after the same flight. So we were in good shape.

Well, minus the fact that I was allergic to Japan. From the moment we stepped out into the airport and onto the bus, I could not stop sneezing. There were barely any breaks between the sneezes, although occasionally there was one long enough for me to ask around for a tissue or just wipe my face on my sleeve. This is usually the time of year when I experience the effects of some allergies, but I thought with the different climate that I might not have a problem. Plus, my ‘allergies’ only started a couple of years ago so I don’t really know how they work yet. In the end, my sneezing became one big joke on the bus, and despite the fact that I was panicking inside without any allergy medication or anything to get me through the next two-and-a-half weeks, out loud I laughed.

A decent shot of the sunset (which happened super early in the evening) from the bus.

Between sneezes, I snapped a few pictures from the bus on my phone, not the greatest-quality photos I’ve ever taken but they will suffice for posts such as this one.

I’m honestly not really sure how long the bus ride took, both because I was tired and sneezing nonstop, but also because every few minutes someone would ask how much further or longer and someone else would tell us it would be about 15 more minutes and/or 15 more kilometres. It obviously wasn’t true every single time. We learned later that our driver was a little bit confused and we actually missed the first place we were supposed to stop at (I think…we were all confused), but eventually we landed at a mall with a food court.

I didn’t know what I was doing – obviously – so I followed some other people around until something looked decent and they stopped for it too. Sean O’Brien, the team’s third base coach, and manager Andre Lachance stopped for sushi so I thought I would try that out with them too. It was cool because the sushi rolled around the tables on conveyor belts and you just grabbed whatever you wanted off of it. The restaurant charged everyone at the end by the colour and number of plates left at your table.

Plus, there were sushi trains. If you ordered something off of the menu that wasn’t already coming around on its own, they sent it to your table on a sushi train. It was awesome. We wouldn’t have even known that was an option but the table behind us kept ordering things from the train, and I am so glad they did. So of course, we had to order something too, and I tried to be ready enough to get a video of it. I got a short one.

Conveyor-belt sushi, take what you want and leave the rest.

The food was awesome and incredibly cheap. I think for the three of us to be stuffed full, it was about 17 dollars in total. And apparently there is no tipping in Japan, just like Australia, though I had a hard time with that at first.

We all loaded our bus back up to head to Kazo Center Hotel. I was looking forward to getting access to some wifi to upload stories and pictures and all kinds of stuff. It took a while to get our keys sorted out and to get everyone up to their rooms. There was one tiny elevator at the hotel and everyone obviously had a lot of stuff. I took the stairs and immediately ran into some giant cockroaches, so off to a great start for sure.

Then I got to my room.

This is what you see walking into the room.

We each had our own, but that was pretty much essential because they were so small. I suspected they would be because this is Japan after all, but I try to paint an accurate picture for anyone who wasn’t in my room with me. I couldn’t open my suitcase anywhere other than on the bed, because that was the biggest space in the room. There was a desk with a TV and enough room for me to roll the stool out from under it to sit at the desk and get work done, which was lovely. Other than that, there was nothing else. A teeny tiny fridge was under the desk also.

The other side, with kind of a shot of the desk.

The bathroom was efficient. The side of the tub/shower was really high though and I banged my knee every time I tried to step in. A few other people we were travelling with also had trouble with this, and banging their knees on the sink. It was a tight space. I took some pictures but I’m not sure if they really get the idea across.

The bathroom, if you couldn’t figure that one out.

At first I couldn’t find the air conditioning, but someone helped me with that. It was on the headboard. I also wasn’t sure how the faucet and shower worked because they shared a nozzle, but eventually I got that too. Also, my sneezing stopped, so things were really rolling at this point.

The biggest problem was the lack of Internet. There was no wifi at the hotel and according to a conversation I had with the people at the front desk through our lovely translator Rena, there was none anywhere close to where we were either. I was told we were out “in the country”. So I had a minor panic attack.

Also, the weird toilet with who-knows-what going on with all of the buttons and instructions.

I talked to Andre and tried to figure something out and he told me to ask Hiroko, who was meeting with Penny. I believe Hiroko is the business manager for the Japanese women’s team, but she has been great with Canada in the past and helped to plan the team’s exhibition games and trip to the country prior to the World Cup. I found them and Hiroko gave me her personal Internet connection. I didn’t understand at first but it’s basically like walking around with the wifi you have at your house all the time. She rents it by the month and was kind enough to share it with me.

A shot of the rock-hard bed, which some people thoroughly enjoyed. The pillow was similar, so I slept on my neck pillow that I had brought for the plane. Also, you can see the air conditioner on the left.

I was sad to let it go at the end of the night, but I didn’t have to. Hiroko told me I could take it for the time being and give it back to her afterward. She must have seen the desperation on my face. Even with the Internet issue solved, I ran into some trouble posting my first story from Japan, on the squad’s four rookies. I was emailing Adam nonstop and eventually it made its way up to the website and can be found here, but not without me pestering a lot of people.

Not off to the best start, but maybe some solid rest on a tiny, incredibly hard bed will do the trick.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/i-might-be-allergic-to-japan/feed/136.131438 139.60171936.131438139.601719wpid-20140823_182709.jpgalexisbrudnickiTeam Canada's equipment bags all packed up and ready to go to the Vancouver airport en route to Japan. Cindy Saavedra, right-hander for Team Canada, also saved my luggage situation. Vanessa Riopel, right-handed starter for the Women's National Team, also got stuck at airport security with me.Bradi Wall, lunchmate and shortstop.Self-explanatory. JAPAN! The view from the top. A decent shot of the sunset (which happened super early in the evening) from the bus. Conveyor-belt sushi, take what you want and leave the rest. This is what you see walking into the room. The other side, with kind of a shot of the desk. The bathroom, if you couldn't figure that one out. Also, the weird toilet with who-knows-what going on with all of the buttons and instructions. A shot of the rock-hard bed, which some people thoroughly enjoyed. The pillow was similar, so I slept on my neck pillow that I had brought for the plane. Competition breeds successhttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/competition-breeds-success/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/competition-breeds-success/#respondSun, 31 Aug 2014 00:06:07 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=393Continue reading →]]>There’s no better time to meet a stranger than first thing in the morning, fresh out of bed and barely awake. Or is there?

I can now speak from experience on that one and I can safely say that is probably not the best time for a first meeting with someone. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s how my Thursday morning started. Marie Claude Fornier, otherwise known as ‘MC’, the athletic therapist for the Canadian Women’s National Team, arrived to Surrey on Wednesday night and came to visit Penny in our room first thing the next morning.

The Women’s National Team on the last day of training camp at Whalley Athletic Park in Surrey, BC.

Neither Penny nor I was awake when she knocked on the door, but I quickly got up and answered. My alarm was set to go off at seven-thirty, just a few minutes later, so it wasn’t a big deal but for the fact that I am sure I looked like a mess.

I welcomed MC in and we chatted and got to know each other a little bit while I tried to pack up my belongings and determine what I would be taking with me to Japan and what I wanted to send home with my mom. Before meeting Mama B later in the day to give her back her rental car and another suitcase for her to take to southwestern Ontario, I needed to figure out just how I was going to work that out.

Emma Carr of Toronto, Ontario, the youngest player on the Women’s National Team at 15 years old.

Penny woke up not much later and joined us and caught up with MC before we all headed back to Whalley Athletic Park one last time before our departure across the International Date Line for the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Miyazaki. The three of us drove to practice together, stopping again to drop off the team’s lunch order at Subway. I took a lot of pictures over the last day of training camp and when the team broke for lunch I completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that I was nominated for by Conor Glassey.

I wanted to make sure to not only acknowledge the cause that the viral sensation is raising awareness for, but also to try and explain to people what it is and what kind of affect it has. I’ve watched a lot of challenge videos and while there are many that are good, there are far more that just seem to me like a person dumping ice water on their head and calling out three more names. That’s not really the point. Or, if it is, I don’t want to be a part of that. But like I mention in my video – assisted by first-base coach Patricia Landry behind the camera and third baseman Ashley Stephenson with the bucket – I donated to ALS Canada several weeks before completing the Internet task and I do believe that funding research to help find a cure is the most important thing.

Ashley Stephenson, Women’s National Team veteran, also the kind player who dumped the water on my head for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Before leaving the field, I changed into a dry set of clothes (I thought it through ahead of time, obviously). Then I made the trek to Vancouver from Surrey to pick up my mother and try to sort through the things I had left with her previously. I had to make a stop at Nat Bailey Stadium to pick up some items for someone at home in Toronto before leaving British Columbia, so we headed in that direction and grabbed some lunch before I did that.

Claire Eccles, a 16-year-old pitcher from Surrey, BC, and the only lefty thrower on the team.

I have to stress once again how great the staff of the Vancouver Canadians is. Everyone was incredibly helpful and kind and went out of their way to make sure guests were happy, every customer left satisfied, and that I got everything I needed as an accredited member of the media. They were great.

My mom and I travelled back to Surrey so that she could drop me off, with a pit stop for me to pick up some essentials that I had lost or forgotten along the way. I’m pretty sure I left a whole tube of toothpaste in Seattle, and maybe some other stuff, so I had to replenish my supply. Because it took a long time to fight through traffic both to and from Vancouver, I didn’t have much time to say goodbye to my mom, but it’s just one word, right?

She wished me luck in Japan and of course told me to have a good time and be safe, or whatever else moms are supposed to say when they send their (grown up) kids across the world. We conform to the norm and do what we think we’re supposed to in situations like those, so we hugged before departing.

Kelsey Lalor, 16 years old and from Red Deer, Alberta.

I didn’t have much time to work before the interviews I had scheduled for the afternoon, but I did start to get some of the pictures uploaded. Four interviews were on my docket before dinner, with each of the rookies on the team, 15-year-old Emma Carr, 16-year-olds Kelsey Lalor and Claire Eccles, and 17-year-old Heather Healey. They were all heading to my room to answer my questions about their experience with the team and then to talk a little bit about media for the upcoming trip. The story I wrote on them can be found here.

While I was doing that, Penny had the task of going grocery shopping for the evening’s competition. Each set of roommates would be a team (ours was Penny, MC and me) and we had to cook an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert, each course for another team. Some members of the squad called it Iron Chef WNT. The budget was forty dollars per team and we were in a time crunch. Because MC was seeing patients and I was trying to conduct interviews and write, Penny got stuck heading to the grocery store. The three of us had briefly discussed a plan during practice in the morning, but discontinued that talk at some point during the day when we were separated. Our discussion included thoughts of breakfast for dinner, with omelettes as our main course and crepes for dessert, however.

Penny returned from the shopping trip with the ingredients to make the aforementioned items, as well as a cobb salad for the appetizer. We went back and forth on which items to use in what but then settled on the salad, ham, cheese and mushroom omelettes, and crepes with fruit. There wasn’t enough money in the budget to have whipped topping on our dessert crepes, but we did have a couple dollars left so I went to the hotel vending machine and bought chocolate bars to melt on top. Genius.

The cobb salad we served as an appetizer during Iron Chef WNT.

The dinner was partly a success but also a little bit of a disaster, so I won’t go into too much detail. We made our appetizers and got everything ready for the main course before switching rooms and eating their food. MC came back just before we had to go and eat and started on the crepes (it makes sense because she’s French) but when we went to eat the appetizer served to us, we left something going and when we came back our room was full of smoke. The food we served was good, for the most part, but our room was a mess.

Our dessert crepes. We did a solid job.

I say for the most part because our omelettes didn’t really work out as planned either. They were kind of my responsibility, so take that as you will. Our frying pans were terrible and everything just stuck right to them, no matter what we used, and so our omelettes turned into a scrambled egg mess, with great fried potatoes on the side. I didn’t take a picture of our main course for posting. You can figure out why. In my defence though, they tasted good.

After the food challenge was done for the night, we had a team meeting. I talked a little bit about social media and how it can affect the players and the organization and how everything on the Internet lives there forever, no matter your privacy settings or what you think you’ve deleted, and on and on. As a team, we came up with a social media policy to use going forward. It was actually tougher than you would think, trying to figure out the dos and don’ts specifically, plus trying to use blanket statements for posts and the like.

We also voted on a winner for Iron Chef WNT, which made almost no sense at all because everyone had different food and no one tasted everything. Our room didn’t get high praise for ambience, with the smokiness filtering through each and every course, and our omelettes were a little bit of a laughing stock, but I thought we did well. Penny may not have seen it the same way but I felt like our team put a strong effort forward.

One more picture from the last day of training camp in BC.

When we were done, I finished my laundry – our hotel was awesome and had free washers and dryers right in our rooms, if I hadn’t mentioned that before – packed everything up to be ready go to Japan, plugged all of my devices into the wall to charge before leaving, and got some work done before heading to bed.

Less than 24 hours before landing in Japan (!), and then also moving into a time zone 16 hours ahead, so that’s a little convoluted. I’m sure you get it.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/competition-breeds-success/feed/049.183333 -122.85000049.183333-122.850000WNT (2)alexisbrudnickiThe Women's National Team on the last day of training camp at Whalley Athletic Park in Surrey, BC. Emma Carr of Toronto, Ontario, the youngest player on the Women's National Team at 15 years old.Ashley Stephenson, Women's National Team veteran, also the kind player who dumped the water on my head for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.Claire Eccles, a 16-year-old pitcher from Surrey, BC, and the only lefty thrower on the team.Kelsey Lalor, 16 years old and from Red Deer, Alberta. Heather Healey of Paradise, Newfoundland, a 17-year-old rookie hurler.The cobb salad we served as an appetizer during Iron Chef WNT. Our dessert crepes. We did a solid job. One more picture from the last day of training camp in BC. Hall of Famers, postal workers & fireworkshttps://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/hall-of-famers-postal-workers-and-fireworks/
https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/hall-of-famers-postal-workers-and-fireworks/#respondWed, 27 Aug 2014 08:01:27 +0000http://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/?p=373Continue reading →]]>Because of the breakfast situation on Tuesday, several people – at least one from each room – went on an excursion to the grocery store to pick up items for the remaining morning meals in Surrey before heading off to Japan.

Penny was the shopper from my room and all I had ordered was Corn Flakes. I wasn’t about to cook up eggs for myself and I figured if I didn’t finish them all I could travel with the cereal, so I thought it was a good choice. But since I am not really used to waking up early and eating breakfast first thing in the morning – baseball life – I wasn’t hungry on Wednesday morning so I opted out of eating. I still need to adjust to the three-square-meals-a-day-at-certain-times-and-likely-nothing-else thing.

I very much enjoy taking as many pictures as possible throughout the days. Hopefully my mom is happy (I never take pictures when I should).

Before we took off for the field, Penny and I had to drop off the lunch order for the team to Subway. With the various travelling and activities and everything weighing on me a little bit, I didn’t get a chance to get a run in over the course of the morning and instead I slept as much as I could.

For some reason the GPS on my phone wasn’t working, to get us to the Subway and the field. I had just used it on Tuesday for the same destinations but for some reason it wouldn’t give me directions. Instead I relied on my memory, which I was a little worried about – just because I had Penny with me and I really didn’t want to make myself look like an idiot – but it was solid. I don’t know why I doubted it, since I can still remember over a hundred digits of pi for no apparent reason, after learning them in the first year of high school, but you know. So we made it to drop of sub orders and then even to Whalley Athletic Park in Surrey.

Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar joined the Women’s National Team for practice.

After having two-time All-Star Shawn Green at the first practice for the Canadian Women’s National Team on Tuesday, Hall of Fame second baseman and Toronto Blue Jays ambassador Roberto Alomar came out to practice on Wednesday. The 12-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, and four-time Silver Slugger came to Vancouver JUST for the women’s team. He flew in late Tuesday night, stayed with the team for morning and afternoon practices at the ballpark, and flew out in the afternoon on Wednesday.

Roberto Alomar taking tosses at second base from the Women’s National Team, flying in just for the day to be with the squad.

Not only that, but he brought everyone hoodies. I was included, too. I should mention though that I do have an Alomar Baseball-Baseball Canada hooded sweatshirt already because when Alomar came as a guest coach of the Junior National Team to St. Petersburg, Florida during spring training, he brought a whole bunch for the boys. I saw them and asked where I could get one and he told me they had only made them special for the team and staff. I must have had a pretty disheartened look on my face because then he gave me the sweatshirt straight off his back.

Also, I wrote about his time with the juniors, and that story can be found here.

The whole team wearing their Alomar Baseball hoodies from the man himself.

Again, I took a lot of pictures of the team practicing, especially the infielders working with the Hall of Famer. I also talked to the native of Puerto Rico about his experience with the women’s team and working with Baseball Canada so much and putting in a big effort for Canadian baseball. Then I talked to shortstop Bradi Wall about working with Alomar, and their story can be found right here.

When lunchtime came around, I headed to Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium once more. I needed wifi to get some work done and I was planning on being there for the afternoon to interview a couple more players before leaving Vancouver anyway. Plus, the team would be joining me for the game in the evening as the Canadians hosted the Boise Hawks.

An action shot from practice, this one of Heather Healey, a rookie and the only Newfoundlander ever in the program.

I arrived to the ballpark just after the Vancouver Canadians had completed their ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. After being nominated by Conor Glassey on Tuesday to complete such a thing, I made arrangements to do mine at the field with the women’s team on Thursday. It is supposed to happen within 24 hours, but since the real idea behind the social media frenzy is to raise awareness and funds for research and finding a cure – and I already donated to ALS Canada several weeks earlier – I didn’t think another day would matter much.

But I just missed the Canadians front office staff completing theirs as a team, so I anxiously awaited the video as I sat in the press box and finished some work and filed a story or two. I also managed to upload the pictures I had taken to Facebook and then went for lunch nearby before I could get anyone I needed for an interview.

I went to a great burger place on Main Street, and have no idea what it was called. But there was an even better bakery right in front of where I had parked, so I stopped in there on my way back to the car. I had something called a Chunky Monkey, a piece of banana bread-croissant-almond-chocolate loaf or something that was so delicious I downed it before I could even take a picture to post with this paragraph. My bad. Or, since I am learning a little French from the national team members from Quebec, c’est ma faute. I felt that was an important phrase for me to start with.

When I got back to the diamond, I talked to Roemon Fields, an outfielder for Vancouver from the Seattle area. He is a really interesting guy and before he was picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays, he was working for the post office with his dad. The story might take a while for me to get to because my priority at the moment is obviously to the Women’s National Team, but it will be good whenever I write it. I promise.

Then I ran into Blake Davis, one of the Blue Jays scouts Nathan had introduced me to at the Everett AquaSox game on Saturday. He was with Brian Parker, Toronto’s scouting director, so we sat and chatted for a while. We talked about Luke Willson, formerly a Blue Jays farmhand and currently a SuperBowl champion tight end with the Seattle Seahawks, if you haven’t read enough of my description of him so far (like here). The story on him will be a great one, so definitely have patience for that. We talked some football, some Vancouver and area, a little bit about my sweet job and the fact that I get to go to Japan and it also brought me to where I am currently, and then I told them they should be sure to get up to the press box to get the best view in the house from the roof. At least for a couple pictures.

Another shot from the roof of Nat Bailey Stadium, the back side.

I tried to direct them for lunch to the places I had gone but it was impossible since I didn’t know street names or anything. I told them to go straight three blocks and left two blocks, and I have no idea whether they tried or not.

Then I interviewed Mike Reeves about joining the team and being with a playoff contender, working with another new staff this year, as the team’s catcher, and being back home in Canada.

I went back to the press box to get more work done before Team Canada was scheduled to arrive. They had gone out to dinner in the area, but were to be on time to go on the field for a pre-game ceremony, and they also asked if I could arrange for someone to be on the pre-game radio show. I asked Amanda Asay to do it because she has been on the team for some time and is also a native of British Columbia, being from Prince George. I thought she would be a good fit and she did a great job.

Amanda Asay of the Women’s National Team on the pre-game radio show for the Vancouver Canadians.

When she was done, we all went to our seats in the stands – with my stuff still in the press box – before the team filed out onto the field for a quick introduction, a couple of pictures, a wave, and that was about it. I have to say though, that the Vancouver Canadians staff was so helpful with everything throughout my entire time around the team and the facility, and they were great with the women’s squad and everything that had to happen. It was much appreciated and I hope to get back there soon.

The Canadian women on their way to the World Cup in Miyazaki, Japan, on the field before the Vancouver Canadians game.

I went back up to the press box pretty soon into the game, to try and work some more and get whatever done I could. I took some pictures from the roof, which was apparently very worrisome for the people in the press box who didn’t know what I was doing, but it worked out okay. I even managed to get a couple decent shots of Mike Reeves up to bat with the brand of his bat showing, because his provider had asked if I might be able to do that. It worked out.

Mike Reeves, of Peterborough, Ontario, in the on-deck circle during the Canadians game.

There were post-game fireworks on Wednesday because weather or something had delayed them from another day, so that was awesome. I like fireworks. Plus, I had to wait a little while to leave because I was heading to one of the team’s host families’ houses for dinner after the matchup. They were so kind as to invite me over and I am glad I went because I had a great time.

Sunset from the roof at the Nat, not bad. Not bad at all.

The host father told a lot of stories about his work and his boat breaking down – rich people problems – and his horses at the track, and all of that kind of stuff, and then the host mom was filling me in on some of the players they had hosted over the years, guys like Nick Swisher and some other big names. It was pretty cool. Dinner had a southern theme and reminded me of my time in Oklahoma, eating chicken-fried steak, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes with white gravy, and maybe a beer or two. I stayed long enough for the beer to wear off and then headed back to the hotel.

It was the first time throughout my stay in the Vancouver area that I didn’t run into any traffic. It was great. But when I got back I realized my key wasn’t working. I guess I had put the hotel key card next to my phone or something and it deactivated the strip. The guy working at the desk was giving me a hard time and asking me to get identification so that I could get in, but I was so tired that I didn’t want to go all the way back to the car to get it and I told him it was in the room. He hesitated for a long time but eventually let me up and let me end my day.

]]>https://alexisbrudnicki.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/hall-of-famers-postal-workers-and-fireworks/feed/0WNT (3)alexisbrudnickiI very much enjoy taking as many pictures as possible throughout the days. Hopefully my mom is happy (I never take pictures when I should). Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar joined the Women's National Team for practice. Roberto Alomar taking tosses at second base from the Women's National Team, flying in just for the day to be with the squad.The whole team wearing their Alomar Baseball hoodies from the man himself.An action shot from practice, this one of Heather Healey, a rookie and the only Newfoundlander ever in the program.Another shot from the roof of Nat Bailey Stadium, the back side. Amanda Asay of the Women's National Team on the pre-game radio show for the Vancouver Canadians.The Canadian women on their way to the World Cup in Miyazaki, Japan, on the field before the Vancouver Canadians game.Mike Reeves, of Peterborough, Ontario, in the on-deck circle during the Canadians game.Sunset from the roof at the Nat, not bad. Not bad at all.